Book 1: Doomsday
by Slayde Demise and Alexia Rose
Summary: First part of the origins trilogy: The start, when a special prison of Robotnik's accidentally seals Shadow, Sonic and Amy in a time warp for 5 years, what will they return to after such a long absence? Swearing, violence, death and dabbles of romance. SonicxOC and ShadAmy hints. Finished! Can't believe it's done!
1. Prologue: The Beginning of the End

These are the ages of the characters at the start of this story:

Sonic – 21

Shadow – Appears to be about 21

Amy – 18

Tails – 14

Knuckles – 22

Rouge – 24

This particular story is set in Mobius.

A world where multiple animals grew intelligent at the same time. Including a few thousand humans. The population on this planet being distributed fairly evenly among the many species.

Note that, unless specified, a chapter will be in a general point of view. Also I need to say this; Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are property of their respective owners.

I'd also like to point out that, for this story, the last time they all saw each other along with Robotnick was in the new gen "Sonic the Hedgehog" The 'sonic heroes' group slowly falling apart and finally breaking up some time in 2009.

Without further adieu; let's get this story started!

* * *

_Prologue: The Beginning of the End_

It was quarter to nine on the 20th of December 2012.

Today was a warm for a day of winter. The sky was overcast, keeping the warmth in, while the sun occasionally shone through rare gaps almost like the sun was attempting to keep the temperature up on the surface of the planet Mobius. The wind blew gently while the final leaves fell off an old lone oak tree standing nearby; causing them to flutter while they fell like they were anticipating something. The sound of a stream could be heard nearby while it trickled back towards the sea.

All of a sudden a blue blur shot by, disrupting the peace and disturbing the area. The blur was none other than the famous Sonic the Hedgehog whom had decided to go out on his normal morning jog, completely and blissfully unaware of the abnormal, strange and life changing events that would soon occur.

Sonic did not look much different despite it being a few years since the hero had last been seen saving the world. The few things that had changed were the fact that his quills had grown an inch or two and the fact that he himself had grown about four extra inches. This made him taller than average for a Mobian. Sonic had also taken up to wearing clothes now. Sporting some faded blue denim jeans with a white T-shirt exclaiming 'Fastest thing alive' with a cartoon 2D picture of himself in a spin ball imitating the letter 'a' on the word fastest. His trainers were the same as they had always been.

The blue blur slowly came to a stop to take in the scenery. He had ran this route a million times and yet there was never any sentient person on the route. Yet today there was a young human man simply standing there nearby him.

Sonic carefully jogged up to the human male to make sure he didn't startle him with his speed. Sonic got closer and realised it was a young man whom seemed to be aged round 21. He was wearing dark blue denim jeans, dark grey top with a white skull imprinted on it. Although standing out the most was not his clothes but it was his facial expression. He looked like a guy with something really heavy was weighing on his mind.

The male turned his head to face Sonic, and mumbled something under his breath just out of Sonic's earshot. Sonic just assumed that the man has recognised him for the great Sonic the Hedgehog. While Sonic continued to approach the man he announces "Hey! Why're you all the way out here?" In his usual loud 'heroic' tone.

The strange man replied with a surprisingly odd, yet cheery voice. "Oh nothing really, just looking round the country. Check out the scenery a bit and that. I'm sure you understand that? I enjoy camping outside, it's fun." He smiled at Sonic in a reassuring way.

Sonic thought, _Why __would a random guy want to be looking round somewhere so far out and so far away from any human civilisation when there is no transport near by or any way of getting here besides walking?_ Completely baffled, Sonic asked curiously "How did you get all the way out here? There's no transport or humans for miles. Are you with anyone?"

"Oh I walked and ran out here." The man told him merrily, yet he seemed to be hiding something that Sonic couldn't put his finger on. Sonic then looked down and noticed a sword lying on the ground, in a large clump of tall grass tall enough to cover a child, next to the man. He was about to say something about it, but then decided to avoid mentioning it.

"Ran? From where? Where do you live?" Sonic questioned. Confused and bewildered as to how a normal human could have ran all the way out here by himself.

"Live? I do not live anywhere specific, the world is my home... I guess I'm a bit of a hermit." He laughed to himself before he stopped smiling and gave Sonic an analytical look, and then he frowned.

"Right, well, you want any help getting to any towns nearby?" Sonic asked kindly with his worried tone. "I can give you a 'lift' so to speak and take you there with ease!" Going back to his usual half cocky attitude. The man frowned slightly more and looked at Sonic with slight irritation.

"No, I'll be okay Sonic. You just go on with your morning run. Don't worry about me at all. I have things to do." His frown evaporated and smile came back while he turned away and started to walk off.

"Okay then, erm... well, I'll see you about I suppose." Sonic turned back round and started running off.

Sonic turned back to look slowly after he had gone a fair distance from the man, however he could not see the man anywhere. Assuming that he must have lain down in the patch of tall grass that was near him Sonic carried on running.

After running for several minutes he started thinking about how odd the man had been. _Why was he like that? And what was he hiding? I don't get humans... He looked depressed when you just looked at him, and yet when you spoke to him he seemed cheery, absolutely fine._

After a few hours of running Sonic concluded his run by returning to station square, and within it, his home, a place that had been given to him from the mayor of the town after all of his achievements for the world and its people. This made him feel a slight tinge of sadness, reminding him of the good old days when Robotnik was fighting them. His thoughts made him glance over to the invite that he had, there was a party at 8 that night held by Rouge. He wasn't sure why she was trying to get all of the old gang together but either way he needed to go see her. Talking to Shadow was a good step towards finding where all the Chaos Emeralds were and making sure they were in good hands.

Sonic cooked himself dinner quickly before he jumped on his sofa and grabbed the remote scrolling through channels trying to find something good on he found a documentary on Angel island and watched it while he ate. Before he knew it he had finished eating and he continued to watch the documentary with genuine interest, yet, before he knew it he had fallen to sleep.

* * *

Waking up with a start he looked at the time _Five past eight. Ah, that's not so bad... Wait a second... _He paused, thinking. Suddenly his mouth dropped open. "I need to be at a party!" He exclaimed to the lounge before he ran into his room in a blur and was back out again before you could say 'party'. He was wearing a fairly 'formal yet cool' looking white shirt with light blue buttons all the way down the middle. The shirt also had very thin lines of the same blue running from top to bottom each one an inch apart. For trousers Sonic was wearing light blue 'smart' jeans that almost matched the colour of the buttons and were not faded. He was wearing completely white versions of his normal trainers.

Sonic ran off out his house, almost forgetting to lock it behind him, rushing up the street at speeds that would have been illegal had he been driving a car. He arrived outside the bar/restaurant and looked down at the piece of paper he happened to have picked up. It read "Come to my Christmas party because I won't be in town for Christmas, love Rouge" there was two large X's at the end of the sentence. He turned over the card to read 'The Ice Cube, 203 W. Ave, Station Square' Looking up, Sonic saw in big bold letters 'The Ice Cube' Sonic breathed in deeply and let out a sigh.

"Guess I'm in the right place then!" Sonic walked up to the club and proceeded to enter. Only to be stopped by an Echidna bouncer that came out of nowhere. He was a blue Echidna with purple eyes and he had a rather angry look on his face, he looked like all he wanted to do was hit someone.

"Sorry, bar's closed for private hire today." The bouncer stressed, speaking in a matter of fact tone. "Got an invite?" He looked at Sonic doubtfully, expecting him to turn away and walk away or maybe expecting him to try and fight back. He looked like he was itching for a scrap.

Sonic simply held up the invite for the bouncer to see. The Echidna looked at it carefully from a distance, and then urged Sonic to come closer. Sonic walked up to him so he could easily pass the invite to the bouncer and the bouncer half snatched it and looked at it carefully like it was a fake. A look of slight surprise came over his face. "Fine, in you go." He stepped aside to allow Sonic passage, not wanting the bouncer to change his mind, Sonic quickly made his way inside the club to be met with the sound of ear drum breaking music making it impossible to hear himself think.

He looked round the club to see that it was a lot bigger on the inside than the outside. The bar was fairly large and there was a great variety of drinks on the back shelf. Including some none alcoholic drinks. He then saw a pink Hedgehog heading towards him. Instinctively he threw up his arms to protect himself from the imminent hug tackle that was sure to come after a few years of not seeing him. He waited there, braced. Then he managed to barely hear a voice over the music. "I can not hear you!" He shouted at her, finally moving his hands down.

"I'm not going to attack you!" Amy was barely audible over the music even though she was obviously yelling as loud as she could. "I would like to catch up though!" She looked much more womanly with the five years of no Robotnik attacking and must have developed a lot with the past two years he hadn't been anywhere near her to see her properly. Amy's quills fell down to her breasts, her breasts were now almost as large as Rouge's, though not quite there, her form was very slender. She had wide hips. The perfect hourglass figure so many girls would kill for. She was wearing a black tank top and some deep blue jeans. All in all after all these years she ironically looked extremely attractive to the single hedgehog and just when it looked like she had gotten over him. He sighed heavily with irritation.

"Where we going?" Sonic bellowed over the music, hoping Amy would hear. Instead of talking Amy just gestured towards one booth in the place with a smile. Sonic was fairly certain he could see a somewhat familiar fox in there. "Okay! Lead the way!" He yelled again so he could be heard and seeing that she had already started walking, Sonic followed.

Entering the booth with Amy he noticed the music was much quieter in here, actually making it possible to hear everyone over the music whilst they were just talking loudly. Spotting that it was indeed Tails, the only person he had seen in the last five years constantly, he sat next to him. "Bit loud in here." Sonic announced. Tails just nodded his head quickly, sipping on a can of something. Just when Sonic was about to comment he realised it was just a can of _Relentless_ and not anything alcoholic.

He looked at Tails and studied his clothing. A light yellow shirt that went well with his shirt and still looked manly. With black trousers on his legs, his feet were not visible, looking at his face he realised just how much Tails had changed over the years. His voice had deepened to a pitch midway between Knuckle's and Sonic's voices, though it did squeak occasionally because he was somewhere in that stage of puberty, he had grown to be only two or three inches smaller than Sonic. Also most notably; Tails' tails had grown to almost twice their previous length. Giving him a place in the official book of world records amongst all his technical and mathematical achievements including working out the pattern in pi.

"Hello Sonic" A loud but seductive tone came across. He could recognise that voice any time. Looking round quickly getting ready to say something he paused almost gaping at Rouges looks. Her body had become even more feminine, if that were possible, her breasts larger and her hips wider. So much for Amy 'rivalling' Rouge. She was wearing a beautiful black dress that fully showed off her cleavage making her look like she was fully proud of it. Looking down he noticed with slight surprise that the dress only came midway between her hips and knees showing off as much of her legs as possible. With mid length heals that were black with a pink heart on the top. "My face is up here big boy." The seductive tone came across again. Sonic quickly looked up to her face. Blushing slightly.

"Hey Rouge, how you been?" Sonic blinked while he watched her, waiting for an answer to his question while she quickly looked him over.

"Not bad I must say. Seems like almost everyone I invited is here. Just two to go." Rouge said to the blue hedgehog; looking at him curiously. Sonic guessed it must have been that, with his change in appearance over the years, he looked a fair bit different. Just as the Blue Blur was about to ask a question, Rouge start talking again and, he was stopped. "Just Shadow and Cream to go now." This amusingly answered the blue Hedgehog's unasked question.

Sonic pondered this for a moment, surprised that Cream had not come with Tails. "Hey mate. Thought you'd be coming with Cream?" Sonic turned to Tails questioning him. Tails looked at Sonic slightly flustered.

"Why would I come with her? She can make it by herself right?" He spoke very quickly. Obviously both hyperactive and trying to cover something up. Sonic looked at him knowingly while Tails' muzzle turned slightly red before turning back to Rouge.

"I must admit I am surprised though. Cream is the sort of person I expect to always be on time for things!" Speaking loudly over the now quieter music. "So how many people did you invite and where they all sitting?" Sonic questioned. Looking round to notice that there was only the four of them in the booth.

Rouge looked back glancing outside of the booth too, judging by Sonic's assumptions, the bar. "Well Knuxiie is at the bar drinking his merry heart away already. Big is in a booth by himself for some reason playing with his frog, Amy and Tails, in here with us. Sally, Bunnie and Julie-Su went in another booth together. Though they don't want to be disturbed, catching up I presume. Finally we have the Chaotix team, or most of them anyway, Vector, Espio, Charmy and Mighty in the final booth, they're happy to talk to anyone, but of course no one can hear each other over the music." Rouge exclaimed smiling completely happy with herself.

"Looks like almost all the crew's here! Know when Shadow's heading in? I'd like to talk to him about something." Sonic announced. Thinking about how he needed to know if he himself possessed any of the Chaos Emeralds thinking of the Dark Blue Emerald stuffed in his quills. Noticing Amy staring into space he decided that this best be his last question to Rouge.

"No. To be honest with you I have no idea! Though we have a GUN mission tomorrow just before I leave with Knuxiie. So maybe he decided to give it a miss? Nothing to do but wait and see I suppose." With that Rouge left the room to tend to her other guests. Apparently pointing a waiter in our direction because a man appeared inside a few seconds after she left.

"Hello welcome to the Ice Cube. Would anyone like to order drinks?" The waiter spoke in a friendly tone. Smiling at all the customers when Sonic quickly realised he had no idea what to have when a very feminine voice spoke out.

"I'll have a large house red wine and another _Relentless_ for my two tailed fox friend here please!" Sounding very cheery like Amy always had done. Sonic gazed at her for a few seconds before realising he was doing it. Looking up, and seeing the waiter looking at him expectantly; Sonic ordered a pint of _Stella_ and the waiter went off to fetch their orders. "Sooo... Sonic. How have you been?! It's been about 3 years since I saw you last! God you look different! Took up to wearing clothes I see. I always said you should!" She winked playfully causing Sonic's heart to flutter slightly.

"Well Amy. If I'm honest. Nothing! Since Egghead disappeared I've had barely anything to do except save random cats from trees, and boring little small things like that." Sonic let out a loud sigh. Obviously letting off that he missed the 'good old days' with a hint of sadness on his face. "How about you? Been up to anything interesting? You've changed a lot too!" Sonic smiled at Amy gently.

"Well there's so much to tell! I was going around with Rouge yesterday, and I've found out that there are so many shoes sh..." Sonic, being a typical guy, started zoning out at the word shoes and just looked at and blinked at Amy; occasionally nodding at her when she seemed to pause so his mind could just wandered his happy place where everything was fast like he loved it. After ten minutes of thinking about running and all the places he had been the waiter walked back in carrying a tray. Sonic immediately came back to earth. "...And that's how I got my hands on some of the rarest shoes in the world! Only five pairs ever made you know!" She smiled her head off at Sonic. Thinking he listened to her every word. Noticing the waiter next to her she let out a soft "Ah!" when he started placing the drinks on the table.

"That was a most interesting story Amy. Thank you for sharing that with me." Sonic smiled at Amy and picked up the beer after thanking the waiter. Taking a long deep drink of it he put it back down and smiled at Amy again whilst she was sipping at her wine. After Amy had finished sipping she placed the wine back down.

"Thank you for listening Sonic, most people normally don't!" Amy looking slightly down while she said it but instantly picking up again as if she was never upset. "So then, what do you think of this place? Been here before? I came before when I met Rouge." Amy asked out of no where. Sonic looked round the booth. The large booth having a red leather 'sofa' that covered three sides of the table and two chairs on the end without. They didn't actually take up that much of the room! The doors leading to the main area were wooden with 'steamed' windows, preventing any onlookers from seeing inside if both doors would be closed. A deep sea blue ceiling met his eyes when he looked up, slowly tracing his eyes down he saw a stripy wall paper sporting a blue and red theme. Surprisingly the types of red and blue went well. Looking at the carpet it was a red colour but it had small 'flame' looking patterns on it in multiple shades of red and some orange. After taking it all in Sonic actually realised that it was a very nice room.

"I must say it's very nice! Why do you ask Amy?" Sonic questioned. Taking one last look round the room before looking at her once again. Meeting her gaze and staring into her beautiful Emerald green eyes that were so full of life and vitality. She looked at him playfully until he looked away, then replied to his question.

"Rouge is sort of thinking about buying the place!" She looked at him merrily. Pleased with her snippet of knowledge. Sonic looked at her quite shocked trying to work out where she would get the money for that. Maybe she really was going on a treasure hunt with Knuckles...

"That sounds cool Ames! Good business investment for her to make!" Sonic smiled to himself. Hoping that this would mean the end of Rouges professional thief 'career' smirking further. Amy looked at him happily. A large smile coming over her face. "Let's go out to the bar area and order more drinks." Staring at his empty beer glass. He could have sworn he never finished it.

"Okay!" Exclaimed Amy happily. Finishing the remainder of her wine before she stood up to go the bar. Tails following closely behind acting wobbly yet hyperactive. Assuming Tails 'borrowed' some of his beer. Sonic didn't bother saying anything.

When he got out the booth he was met by loud music again. _Back to not being able to think_ he thought. The chuckled over his accidental pun.

Spotting Knuckles he went and sat next to him. His quills had grown to be far longer than they used to be. By at least three inches. Wearing the same sort of thing that Tails was except red instead of yellow. He was an inch taller but besides that it was same old Knuckles.

Sonic went up to him, seeing that he had 5 shot glasses lying in front of him. "Yo Sonic!" He gestured to the seat next to him and prompted the fox barmaid that he wanted a bottle of vodka. "Ever done vodka shots before Sonic, Amy?" Knuckles announced. Using three of his old shot glasses he poured three new ones. Sonic and Amy both shook their heads in unison. "Hehe, this'll be fun. Okay, well, you have to do is down it when I say go. We carry on drinking doing it until everyone but one person gives up. Things like throwing up and passing out count as a forfeit!" He winked at them both. Sonic and Amy looked at each other in unison. Shrugged. Laughed. And then turned their attention back to Knuckles whom was holding them both a shot glass each looking merry. "Okay on my count, three, two, one. Go!"

* * *

A long time had passed since the beginning of the shots competition and Knuckles had to run to the toilets to throw up 2 shots ago. When he returned looking all pleased with himself for god knows why, he poured out two more for Sonic and Amy and they both downed them instantly, almost falling off their chairs from the sheer speed they did it at. Tails had wandered off to hang out with the Chaotix crew at the same time as Knuckles toilet break. Both Amy and Sonic sat back up straight. Sonic looking only slightly worse than Amy. "I'm going to win Ames!" He forced out all merry, barely able to string the sentence together. Amy just looked at him and smirked knowingly. Looking to Knuckles, whom had already finished pouring their next shot, she picked up her glass.

"Okay on my count this time!" Knuckles scolded them both. Sonic laughed and Amy giggled. "Three... Two... One. Go!" Knuckles almost bellowed, falling off his chair in the effort. By the time he got back up Amy and Sonic were having a stare down. "Okay guys. Last one. I'm almost out!" He announced shaking the second bottle of vodka. Pouring the remains out Sonic and Amy picked up the glasses. Downing them before Knuckles said anything more. The burning sensation of the alcohol going down their through no longer affecting them at all.

Just when Sonic finished his shot, he slipped and fell off the chair backwards hitting his head. The extreme amount of alcohol and hit to the head knocking him out for a grand total of five seconds. When he got up all he could hear was Knuckles shouting "And I declare this Miss Rose the winner!" Sonic just scowled at the both of them. Checking he watch, he noticed that it was already pushing on eleven.

Suddenly the doors of the club opened, leaving a shadowy figure standing there. When he walked into the light it was none other than Shadow the Hedgehog. Amazingly, despite his immortality, he seemed older. The same height as Sonic and the same styled quills as he had before but longer. Sonic noticed that his red stripes had dulled to a much darker blood red. He wore a black shirt with black jeans and his usual trainers. Strolling in he walked up to the bar and ordered a double whiskey.

Sonic walked up to Shadow with the intention to ask him about the Chaos Emeralds but the alcohol took over. "Shadow you're my best friend." Shadow raised his eyebrow at him. Completely bewildered. Rouge then came up to Shadow.

"Glad you could finally make it. Though you weren't going to come!" Rouge exclaimed to her work partner.

"I had some." He paused to think of a word. "Errands, I had to run." Shadow looked at her slightly sad face. "I shall try and be prompt next time. When you arrange another... Event." Turning round to his now served drink. Sonic chuckled. Same old Shadow.

Drink taking over again, he started smiling so widely it looked painful. "Shadow you're my best friend!" The onyx and crimson Hedgehog turned just his head from the bar to look at Sonic with an annoyed look on his face. "Give us an 'ug!" Sonic said in a drunken 'I love you my friend' manner before he flung his arms out knocking something off the bar. Sonic made his way to Shadow when he received a heavy punch in the face.

"Anyone else tries that. I'll be leaving." He sat down to his drink again. Sonic vision gradually went black while he slowly passed out from the second blow to the head due to the alcohol.

* * *

Sonic woke with a start feeling dazed, confused and incredibly drunk. His vision faded black for a second from sitting up too fast he could hear two concerned voices "Wuz goin un?" His speech slurring like crazy. Looking over he saw Amy and Tails talking out of earshot.

"Finally! You're up! You had us worried! Party finished a half hour ago, it's half one!" Amy told him, Sonic sat there blankly wondering where the time went. He stood up and walked over to the almost shut bar. Amy and Tails in toe making sure he was okay.

"One half pint before leaving mate!" The red Fox looked at him. Pondered if it was a good idea. Finally decided a half would be okay she passed it to him after pouring it out the tap. He quickly swigged it down and paid his thanks. Glad that Rouge was paying all charges and feeling irritated he had missed out on the cake. Turning round. He saw Amy was still there behind him. Tails was just going out the exit.

Amy shook her head at him and rolled her eyes. "So then. What am I going to do with you?" She said gently. Sonic then realised the music was gone. "Come on, I'll walk you home." She smiled at him. He drearily walked along; still a bit groggy from his recent 'nap.' Looking at Amy he saw that she didn't look that badly drunk. He made a mental note to ask her how she managed to do that. Amy grabbed Sonic's arm and supported him. Exiting the club they both began the long journey to Sonic's house after Sonic muttered where he lived.

Sonic decided to get his question out again "Whut hapnd?" Trying to recall anything after the drinking battle.

"Shadow knocked you out for trying to hug him. Gave us quite the scare! We put you up on one of the sofas at the side since you weren't bleeding and seemed to be breathing just fine." Amy exclaimed. Sonic just nodded meekly with red cheeks and they walked the journey in silence. Sonic too drunk to think about anything specific.

When they walked down his drive Amy asked for Sonic's keys. Sonic, being stubborn attempted to put the key in the door himself. After several failed attempts however, he gave in. "Thank you!" She exclaimed. Sonic just smiled weakly. She helped him in and let him go once in the living room. Sonic almost fell but Amy grabbed him again just in time. The blue Hedgehog muttered something incoherent with something that sounded like somewhat colourful language at the end. Helping him to his bed, she helped him remove his shirt and proceeded to take of his jeans. The blue hedgehog protested. "Sonic. You used to run round naked three years ago. Remember?" Sonic stopped protesting and let her take off the jeans. Amy noticed a large bulge in the middle of the boxers. "Erm... Sonic?" She giggled slightly. He looked down and blushed. Then just laid down again.

"Is becuz I is little tipfsy. Nrmly hapfens" He said grinning, his eyelids started to droop when he started falling to sleep.

"Sonic!" Amy shouted gently. Waking the hedgehog back up. "I'll lock the door from the outside and post the key back through. See you soon I hope!" She smiled at him. _Maybe I should give her another chance to be my friend. She doesn't seem at all obsessive anymore._ He thought drearily. Upon hearing the door close and the keys posted through he realised he didn't thank her. He supposed he could tomorrow. Quickly taking off his boxers he slipped under his quilt and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

* * *

**Quarter past nine on the 21st of December 2012. **

When Sonic woke up he woke with a start and, looking at his clock, noticed that it was later than when he normally awoke. Luckily for him the noises from outside, from late Christmas shoppers, had disturbed him preventing him from sleeping in too long yet he still felt exhausted despite his extra sleep. He opened his eyes fully and was met by a searing pain in his head, about time the hang over kicked in. Suddenly realising he was naked he quickly spun round to check he hadn't done anything he had regretted. Seeing no one next to him he shrugged it off and put it down to one of those rare times he wasn't too drunk to take off his own clothes. "Wow. Should not have had so much... Erm... I can't even remember what I drank..." He murmured to himself hands busy holding his aching head.

He slowly sat up while the aching continued. Looking round his room groggily he spotted his clothes on the floor. Blinking twice slowly he started to stand up quickly just to immediately fall backwards back onto the bed because of dark spots appearing in his vision. "Stupid damn head rush." Sonic muttered to himself. Slowly prying himself off the bed this time, Sonic succeeded in getting to his feet. "Stupid low blood pressure." He muttered again before he turned his head to try and locate his dark blue dressing gown, almost immediately Sonic noticed it hung up on the back his door. Walking over slowly to his door he picked up his dressing gown and put it on, tying up the front, before he walked out the room and down the hall.

Looking to the left and right he remembered that the house had two spare rooms not to mention the study on the upstairs. Trying to work out why he would need so much room he headed down the stairs. Once he arrived to the bottom of the stairs he looked across the living room that the stairs went down into. He sighed before he walked into the room and looked through the arch that led to the kitchen, slowly, he headed towards the kitchen. Always having thought that a fry up is the best hangover cure he scouted the kitchen for where his fridge was, vision and memory still woozy from the pain, he located it after a few minutes of fumbling round.

Popping in and out of cupboards like a man on a mission he managed to find everything that he needed. Now all he had to do was cook it... He sighed again before getting to work and, making sure that the meat was cooked the right amount of time to prevent food poisoning, he went to the nearby upper cupboard to fetch himself a plate, the sink catching his eye, forcing him to notice his plate from last night.

"That really needs washing." He muttered aloud to no one in particular; mentally scolding himself for forgetting to do it last night. Walking back to the stove after several minutes he noticed everything was cooked and, after he switched the oven off, started dishing up his delicious smelling and looking meal onto his plate. Taking it over to the table he grabbed a knife and fork out of the drawer on the way before placing the plate upon it and sitting down to eat slower than usual due to the presence of the hangover.

After Sonic had finally finished his breakfast he found that he felt a bit better, as he thought he would. He had grabbed some milk to drink with the full English because he was feeling too lazy to put the kettle on. His headache had all but faded, but he still didn't feel at one hundred percent. He slowly took the plate to the sink and put it on the side next to the other plate from last night. Quickly having a massive stretch, he prepared himself to get washing up while he reached for the tap.

Suddenly Sonic's phone started to ring; he shot to it before the phone could even ring for the second chime and picked it up putting it to his ear. "Hey, Sonic here!" The rest of his hangover mysteriously evaporating as he spoke loudly and happily down the phone.

"Hey Sonic." Tails voice came up on the other end of the line, it sounded oddly shaky, for some reason he was talking quickly. "It-t seems like Eggman has decided to make a reappearance and is up to something again! I-I think you should come down here when you can and take a look at the evidence that I've managed to gather!"

"Okay Tails I'll be right over." Sonic paused for a second and then spoke again. "Tails, are you okay buddy?" There was a short pause on the other end of the phone. Sonic started to think his friend had hung up before he could ask.

"Yeah fine Sonic, just a bit bothered by the things Eggman seems to be doing." Sonic could hear the anger and compassion in his voice now. Though still mystified at how it could be worse than it ever was before.

"Okay bud! I'll be right over, don't do anything stupid!" Sonic put down the phone walking to the door, wondering why his friend sounded so panicked and just what Eggman could be doing that's so bad but pushed it out his mind, and started to run.

_With Tails_

"There, I did it exactly how you asked, now please, do not hurt Cream!" Tails pleaded to her capturer, metaphorically capturing Tails because he could now control Tails' every move through fear for her safety. Tails looked ragged, like he had been through a lot of re-occurring stress in the past few hours and hadn't had much sleep that night.

"Not to worry Tails your little bunny friend is fine, I shall now release her as promised, now carry out the plan and that way no one will get hurt or at least your other friend, Amy, wont." Doctor Robotnik spoke manically, adding his stereotypical evil laugh on the end. "Sonic will not escape this one. My evil plans are at their zenith. They shall not be beaten!"

"I know that no matter the plan you have, any amazing robots you've built, and whatever terrible things you have done to the world. Sonic will find a way past it and he will stop you." Tails said defiantly. A look of determination and belief on his face.

"Shut up you two tailed freak." Robotnik shouted at Tails, clearly enraged by Tails' words. Robotnik calmed himself. "Sonic will not escape this you have my word. Just go with the plan and you shall see. Remember that I can hear everything done and said in that workshop thanks to those things I made you install. One wrong move or word and I shall kill Amy!" Robotnik calmly stated as he smirked evilly. "Make sure Sonic sees those photos I gave you, it'll just make him want to come to me, encouraging my plan."

When there was suddenly there was a knock on the door and the video conversation with Dr. Robotnik stopped. "Hey Tails let me in!" Tails could hear Sonic shouting from behind the door. Tails walked up to the door and opened it. Sonic took one look at Tails and realised how much he had changed, now looking just like a teenager and like a Goth, wearing a black top with a red skull on it with fire in the eyes and some black skinny jeans. When Sonic normally came round Tails was in his engineering gear. "Tell me then, what's Robotnik up to and when is he doing it?" Sonic asked.

Tails looked at Sonic blankly for few seconds trying to think of how to put his unwilling lies. "Come in Sonic, there's some stuff I need to show you regarding Dr. Eggman and things we believe he may be up to." Tails said quickly, faster than normal, though Sonic did not notice because of his usual fast paced nature. Also not noticing the 'we' instead of the 'I' when Tails spoke. Bringing Sonic up to the computer screen he brought up two pictures. One of them was of a picture of Amy being carried away by a robot bearing Robotnik symbol. The other was of Shadow killing an adult human male. "Amy was kidnapped last night. Probably on the way back from the party!" Tails pulled a sad face; his voice still sounding panicked mystifying Sonic. "Whereas Shadow, well I have no idea when he did it, but Eggman's somehow recruited him again and he's been killing!"

"So Eggman's decided he's going to kidnap Amy yet again?" Sonic spoke in disbelief. "And he's got Shadow back on his side?" Sonic felt extremely guilty, he could faintly remember last night now, but one thing he remembered for sure was the fact that Amy came and walked him home because he was too drunk and had hit his head. It was his fault she was taken.

"Yes Sonic, but not just her, a couple of humans have also disappeared and I suspect Eggman is behind their disappearances too. One is a woman, here's a picture." Tails brought up a picture of a relatively average looking female human with piercing blue eyes and long brown wavy hair.

Sonic studied the picture of the woman, he had never seen her before, and wondered why Eggman would want a woman whom looked so ordinary. Though she looked as if she was deep within her own mind and, when Sonic noticed, she was wearing an ornate gun on her hip. "So why does Eggman want her? She looks normal minus the fancy hand gun."

"Simply put; I think that he wants her because she is known to be the most accurate person with a gun in the world, even better than a computer targeting system. She can hit a bull's eye perfectly from a mile away with a normal handgun and sight." Tails looked at Sonic, making sure he took it all in and fully understood.

"Wow. Can you show me a picture of the male?" Tails pressed a few buttons on the portable keyboard he was holding in his hands. "And can you tell me what is is he wants with..." Sonic's sentence fell short when he looked at the picture of the guy, it was a bad picture because the man was clearly trying to avoid the camera, but he was certain that it was the guy that he saw yesterday morning. "Tails. I saw this man yesterday when I was out for my jog."

"But you could not have! He's been missing for a while, he hasn't been seen for longer than a moment for nine years in actual fact, where did you see him?" Tails questioned. Tails pulled up some documents onto the screen. "Facts say that he ran away during his thirteenth birthday. That he was a sword prodigy. Not one person could stand up to him, and he fought a lot of people, not even some of the most skilled of Mobians could beat him. The stronger his opponent was; the stronger he was forced to become, during battle most the time. He was never beaten in a match, though a few people whom never got to dual him believed they would have won when they duelled." Tails looked up at Sonic, so he nodded gently to say he was getting it all. "No one really knew where he went on his thirteenth birthday all that was took happened to be a very special sword his parents had made from him for his birthday and a note was left behind, saying 'I've gone to train, do not come looking for me, you will never find me.' Think how terrible that must have been for his parents!"

"I saw him on my morning run, somewhere smack bang in the middle of the country you know, the bit absolutely no one lives in for miles. The fool said that he had no home; I thought he was just your average hermit. Come to think of it, he had a sword with him. It was one of the most beautiful swords that I had ever seen." Speculated Sonic, deep in thought before he realised something. "But why would he lie when I could have helped him get away from Eggman!"

"I have no idea Sonic, but where you saw him would explain it though, because Sonic, that's near where Eggman's base is!" Tails exclaimed. Tails looked confused for no apparent reason. Sonic didn't notice though, he was too annoyed.

"Why does no one ever tell me when he moves his god damn base?! I need to be told, need to, so I can keep a good eye on him! He could have attacked me any time during the time I was talking to the guy!" Sonic half shouted, clearly irritated. He stood there glaring at Tails as though it was his fault.

"Calm down Sonic, you have not really been asked, so it did not really cross my mind to tell you; besides that I only recently found out! But Sonic, you really have to leave now, if the male managed to escape I doubt Eggman would let him go far, and when he is or was caught I bet he was punished for it!" He looked round, but Sonic had already gone, the workshop door slamming behind him because all that was left was a strong gust of inside wind. "Good luck Sonic, my friend." Tails spoke sadly with a small tear trickling down his face. "You'll need it." His voice was barely a whisper when it cracked in the middle. The young fox teen burst out crying however did so without making a sound, he locked his front door and went back inside to work on something to take his mind of things. Not believing quite so much as he let on. He had a bad feeling about it all.

Sonic set off running at an incredible blinding speed "I've got to get there quickly." Sonic shouted to himself, egging himself on to go faster. Quickly accelerating to his full speed. _If that idiot Eggman has hurt any of them then he is going to pay._ He thought darkly. Sonic ran faster than he ever had before towards the base where he knew his foe would be waiting for him.

* * *

"Okay Shadow, it's up ahead." Rouge was wearing her old gear from back in the day. Looking across to Shadow she announced something else "I think we she split up to look for the Emerald." Shadow nodded. He understood why she said it, they could easily cover a lot more ground that way and find the Chaos Emerald faster. The bat veered off to the left when Shadow ran up a vertical wall to stand on the top of a building.

"It's odd Rouge, I feel lighter than how I used to. Now I've found out about my past and everything." Shadow was standing on top of some old ruins that looked like they were close to collapsing; he was wearing combat print jeans with a top that also had combat printed on it.

"Yeah Shads, I understand. I'd hate to not know my past. I'm glad for you, I really am." Rouge sounded compassionate and happy while she spoke over their wrist communicators.

Shadow started running through the ruins looking round for the Chaos Emerald that was supposedly somewhere within the ruins. "I've told you many times not to call me that Rouge." He carried on running, flying past all of the various traps that always seemed to appear wherever the Emeralds were. "I still feel like I'm missing something though. I don't know what... I sort of can't believe I ended up working for GUN. But I suppose it was bound to happen, it suits me. Unfortunately."

"Yeah. I must admit I too was shocked when I heard that you were joining to be my partner." Rouge had a certain curiosity in her voice, the kind that wouldn't be picked up by normal ears. But an ultimate life form could hear it.

"Found something?" Shadow asked in response to the curious tone. She didn't reply. "I'll take that one as a yes then." Shadow said assertively.

There was silence.

"Rouge why aren't you replying?" Asked Shadow slightly worrying now, not that it showed on his face or in his tone. He stopped in front of a large stone door, the kind of stone door that you just know something valuable must be hidden behind. "Why do the Emeralds always get transported to places like these? It's just really odd." He questioned himself rhetorically. The door was one that looked typical to having a few million traps, spikes and various robots that just so happened to be there.

There had still been no reply. "Rouge?" Shadow asked trying one last attempt, considering going to go find her before going inside the door that so obviously led to the Emerald.

"Mwahahaha." Dr. Robotnik's voice was heard on the other side on the communicator.

"Doctor?" Shadow said confused. Then it dawned on him. "What have you done to Rouge?" His voice changing to hostility.

"Shadow, I have managed to capture your beloved GUN buddy. Come to my lair if you dare and see if you can rescue her." The line cut off the second the half-an-hour of evil maniacal crazy laughter had finished.

"Rouge got captured? Is not that the pink hedgehogs' job, I can not seem to recall her name... Damn, I'm going to have to go get her or I will not be able to complete my work for GUN." He stated as he turned to leave. Then he turned back. "Though, I should probably get this Emerald before the doctor finds out about it." He started charging up Chaos Energy in his hand. "_Chaos Spear!_" Breaking open the stone door with the destructive force. Looking inside he saw the green Chaos Emerald hovering slightly above an alter; he mumbled "Ah here it is, my favourite, but this seems too easy."

Shadow started to walk towards the altar the Chaos Emerald was hovering above. Surveying the room carefully, trying to seek out any traps laying in wake for any thieves, using all his senses to his fullest, he noticed none in the immediate area but continued to be wary. Shadow continuing to wonder why exactly when the Emeralds disappeared they always seemed to reappear into some form of temple or such. He carried on walking and suddenly heard a clicking noise, turning round to see what it was, and his shoulder met contact with some form of large spike flying at an incredible speed; sending him flying into the wall.

The spike had gone straight through his shoulder and had embedded itself into the wall behind, leaving him stuck, dangling by his right shoulder from the wall behind him. He pulled the spike out of his right shoulder with his left hand and fell down to the floor while a small amount of blood trickled out the wound; he went to run, but for some reason, he could not move his feet. Looking down, he realised that his feet were in some form of black sticky substance.

Suddenly a large humanoid figure of rocks started trundling towards him; he looked up at it when it took a massive swing at him. Massive fist heading towards his face he had to think fast. "_Chaos Control!"_ He shouted, just managing to avoid the massive swing from the monster by a hairs breadth, teleporting himself right behind the monster, he quickly jumped on its back suddenly charging a large amount of energy "_Chaos Barrage!"_ He shouted. Shooting a barrage of yellow Chaos Spears into the back of the monster in an attempt to destroy it, unfortunately, this kicked up a lot of smoke.

There was no movement so Shadow turned towards the alter and started to walk away towards the Emerald. Hearing a 'swooshing' noise he quickly ducked; just in time to avoid another clobbering. Shadow quickly spun round and did a back flip and surveyed the monster of stone. It was completely undamaged. This monster was not going to go down without a fight.

The stone golem reached over and grabbed Shadow with its over sized hand. Clenching its fist it crushed him hard as it could. Shadow tried to push the fist open, but it only grew tighter. He could feel the wound in his shoulder aching and oozing with blood. The fist was actually starting to win against Shadow so he started to get frustrated.

Shadow then knew that there was only one thing left that he could do to get rid of the monster, and because he was getting angrier and more frustrated from the delays by the second to being able to go and rescue his partner his fur started to turn into a red pelt.

Two words were heard while the monster disintegrated.

"_Chaos! Blast!_"

Shadow looked at the remains of the monster once he had fallen to the ground. He decided he should just be quick, and ran up to the Chaos Emerald full speed and grabbed it, pulling it away from the shrine. "Like taking candy from a baby!" He exclaimed. He tossed it into the air and caught it again. Quickly getting ready to leave.

But when he picked up the Emerald, suddenly, another door closed over the first broken one; and the ceiling started to fall towards him at an incredible rate, he looked up at the ceiling to notice that it was absolutely coated in deadly looking spikes; it rushed down, destroying everything high up while Shadow ran towards the exit, but the spikes were just barely scraping his head...

There was a green flash of light outside the door when a mighty crash was heard from within. Shadow looked up, exhausted, "Barely made it. A few more seconds and the ceiling would have crushed me." Taking a look at the Emerald, he was glad he had it since he had drained most his excess Chaos energy and didn't want to risk taking his restrictors off. "Good thing I used that last minute Chaos Control. Now I best go find and rescue Rouge." With that statement he raced off for Dr. Eggman's base. Knowing where it was because he was told by GUN he needed to do recon of the base the very next day.

* * *

Shadow ran through the main door and entered the base. He looked round, it looked just like every other one of Eggman's bases, metal everywhere of course. All of a sudden some robots started running towards him, they were just like the ones back when Solaris appeared. He dispatched of them quickly, using Chaos Control to warp in between them, getting them to shoot each other and not getting hit by any. "Still just as worthless as they've always been." He said when he finished the last one off with a quick Spear of Chaos Energy.

Suddenly something came through on his GUN transmitter. "Shadow! I've managed to escape from Eggman's base, I suggest you do the same, he has a trap set up for you! I don't know how he plans on doing it, but it can't be good!" Rouge exclaimed through it.

"Right Rouge, I'll move straight out." Shadow looked up from his transmitter and saw Sonic running in his general direction, thinking that though this was neither the time nor place, he decided he best not start anything. Then Sonic saw him and started running directly towards him with a very angry look on his face, his manner was very hostile. Shadow mentally put up his defences. Ready for a punch or kick. Though Sonic collided with him head on, sending Shadow flying backwards into one of the metal walls, a small spike cutting his back open slightly. Shadow fell to the ground, some blood trickling down his back, and the wound on his shoulders scab breaking, causing it to bleed again. Shadow gritting his teeth in pain before he realised he could no longer use his right arm. Lucky he was left handed, not to mention ambidextrous anyway. _Where did this unprovoked attack come from?_ Shadow questioned in his thoughts. He got up ready to fight, but Sonic was already bearing down on him.

"Turning back to Eggman again? I thought you would know better by now you stupid idiot." Sonic said harshly. Shadow looked at him in disbelief. Before Shadow could throw up a word of protest his found a fist in his face, breaking his nose.

_Right that does it._ Shadow thought. _I do not care _what_ story the retard has got in his head, he is not getting away with that!_ Fresh blood trickled down Shadows face and over his lips before he hit Sonic square in the stomach with as much force as he could with his left arm, Sonic fell over backwards, winded and coughing up a little bit of blood. "If you thought you were going to get away with that then you are a fool, fake Hedgehog." Shouted Shadow when he started to kick Sonic in the back repeatedly, seeing red after having his nose broken. Sonic rolled over, and Shadow stamped on his arm with his full strength, hearing a loud crack and a scream made him smirk slightly, his old malicious ways seeping through. Looking at the way the arm had contorted he knew had definitely broken it.

Shadow stepped back and allowed Sonic to try and get up. Sonic slowly managed to crawl his way up, left arm broken, he was losing quite a lot of blood his vision was going hazy. While Sonic was getting up he picked up a heavy chunk of metal in the shape of a bar. Shadow did not notice this, until the piece of metal was flying at his head faster than he could avoid, there was a crack and everything went black for him when he fell to the floor. Sonic stood there, hoping he did not just kill Shadow because killing was not in his nature, looking at Shadows skull when he too fell and passed out, from a mixture of pain and blood loss.

Amy was locked up in a chair round the wrists and ankles preventing her from moving. She was still wearing the same thing as she had on the night previous. Except the tank top had many rips in it and the jeans had a tear on the left knee, showing a small cut behind it. The evidence of a struggle that had occurred recently was obvious. "Oi Egghead! Talk to me! Afraid to speak to something other than a robot!?" She taunted him as she always had in this situation, back in the day, trying to provoke him into making a stupid mistake of some kind or revealing information that might help Sonic. Dr Robotnik spun round on his chair. Looking straight into Amy's eyes, making it clear he wasn't about to be taunted like his old self.

"I am a bit preoccupied at the minute Miss Rose." He answered while he looked away from her and went back to work on whatever he was tinkering with.

"Huh? You must be doing something important to just ignore me like that, you never used to. Tell me what it is?" Amy asked, genuinely curious about something that could cause him such absolute concentration. The main reason however being because she knew Robotnik loved boasting and distracting him from anything he was working on was normally a good idea.

"It's none of your business Miss Rose." Amy was gob smacked. That was the first time that she had ever heard of Robotnik saying no to an offer of boasting and she had had _plenty_ of opportunities. Alas, the one time she was actually interested, he wouldn't talk.

She decided to play her reverse psychology card. "Oh well that's fine, I didn't want to know anyway." She mentally crossed her fingers. If she could just distract him until Sonic got here it would all be okay. She could hear Robotnik on the other side muttering to himself. She just managed to catch some words to find out what he was talking about. He was asking himself whether he should tell her or not. _Strange man._ Amy thought.

Robotnik spun round again, this time with something in his hand. He kept it concealed when he walked up to her. For some reason, as Robotnik walked closer and closer to her, she began to feel ill. By the time he was standing just a meter away from her, she felt like she was going to throw up. "One day. I started trying to make a special device." Amy was caught off guard; she was expecting a slap or something violent but Robotnik was actually just explaining. "The device I was attempting to make… Was a device called Chaos Emerald tracker. By making one, I would be able to get all the Emeralds without fail." Amy was surprised. Tails said he attempted the same thing but that the Emeralds emit a strange signal which somehow blocked trackers from locking on any closer than a general area of a hundred or so miles. Robotnik sighed. "Alas, no matter how hard I tried I simply could not overcome the simple problem that was 'the Emerald cloak' and I failed time and time again." Amy blinked. She still felt terribly sick. Her vision was a little funny too. "But then, one day. After a year or two years or maybe even three of trying something came up. I had gotten myself a single blip on the radar and, although I doubted it would be a Chaos Emerald since they would all appear at once, I was irrevocably curious. So naturally I thought I best check it out. The blip was in an odd location far from human civilisation, in fact within a 50 mile radius there was no intelligent life at all. It was as if there was a sense of foreboding about the area." A robot had now brought Robotnik a chair to sit down on. When he sat a slight bit of black gleamed from his hand and when Amy saw it she felt a surge of sickness, throwing up slightly in her mouth, but not wanting Robotnik to stop she didn't say anything. She swallowed the bit of sick that came up.

"What is that in your hand?" Amy asked. Curious as to why he didn't show it right away.

"In good time, Miss Rose. In good time." Robotnik said almost cheerfully. Amy found that creepy, she had never heard him cheerful. "So where was I? Ah yes. There definitely was a foreboding in the area. All of my robots refused to cross into the radius, claiming that there was an error and the area didn't exist. So I was forced to go alone, in the only manually controlled thing I brought with me. My feet." Robotnik looked slightly irritated at the thought of it. "I started walking and after two hours I was exhausted, only covering about six miles within that time. I sat down for a moment, trying to think of a way to get there faster. It was then I spotted a stream, next to it stood a feral horse. Not just an ordinary horse but one of the most mighty majestic horses you shall ever see. I approached slowly careful not to startle the beast and while I approached him he looked at me, I expected him to up and bolt yet instead he lowered himself, allowing me to get on his back. I assumed that he lived in this area as it was peaceful and thanked the devil for his assistance." Robotnik looked slightly happier again now. He was back to that eerie unusually happiness. "I rode that horse for a little over an hour, since it was an incredibly fast horse with incredible stamina, when we approached the area of the blip I started to see a building, the building was completely made of steel looking much like one of my bases except for the fact that it was completely deserted. The horse slowed down and stopped about 50 meters short of the door and, despite my natural instinct that the horse wouldn't understand, I asked it to stay when I went in." Robotnik shifted in his chair. His robot nearby delivering a glass of water which he carefully took with his unoccupied hand.

"So what happened after that?" Amy asked. Ears perked, eyes forward. Now she was fully interested, with no need to feign it anymore, and nothing could deter her from hearing the story.

"Well." Robotnik took in a deep breath. "I spent a while navigating the destroyed corridors and eventually found a wrecked main computer room. There was a broken glass capsule in the middle with a smaller similar capsule connected to it. It looked like they were doing experiments on a Mobian with something, possibly a Chaos Emerald? I didn't know for sure, anyway, I tried to access the computer but no luck, no power at all… Luckily I had my trusty 'Egg-lectro charge' on me. Plugging it onto the computer some words came up as it powered on. It read 'Our mission has been compromised. We were found. He has found us and is now saving her, destroying everything we've built. The mission was a partial success however. Just before he came we managed to hide it away. With my dying breath I write this out to you. If you are a human, you will be able to take it.' It was dated December 21st 1964. Then suddenly a door opened beneath the keyboard. A small cupboard held this." He finally revealed what was in his hand. Holding it out in front of him it was a Chaos Emerald upon first glance. But it was pitch black. As if it was sucking in the very light round it. Amy threw up this time. Unable to control herself. Robotnik looked both amused and disgusted at the same time. A different robot quickly scuttled over to clean up the mess. "Yes it does have an unnerving effect." Robotnik looked at the onyx Emerald with distaste and glee at the same time. "I felt strange until I got used to it. Though I never was physically sick, women are indeed weak stomached. Anyway, to conclude my story, I rode home on the same horse who waited for me, shockingly. He stopped and let me off about a mile off the radius. I thanked the beast and walked back to my robots, and here I am… Experimenting away. It seems to be better at working on biological things rather than mechanical, it can be used like a Chaos Emerald but is weaker. It lets off a different radiation though. I'm going to do some odd experiments with it, outside of my field." Robotnik had finished.

In normal circumstances Amy would have been devastated that Robotnik had got his hands on something like that, but she would ensure Sonic would take it off him when he came and rescued her. "What experiments are yo-" Suddenly an alarm started, so loud Amy was forced to be quiet. Robotnik rushed to his computer, reading what had happened on the screen. "It's Sonic isn't it! He's rescuing me!" Amy started smiling despite the slight sickness that remained. To her surprise he started laughing.

"Finally I have done it!" Robotnik laughed like a maniac. "Take her to be locked up with the two humans!" He commanded a nearby robot.

"What's going on Eggman? Tell me now or you'll pay!" She shouted at him. Being carted out the room there was enough time for one last sentence. "You're such an ignorant dick!" The doors slammed shut behind her. Robotnik was unfazed as he smiled with wicked happiness.

"Sonic and Shadow fell right into my trap as anticipated, I feel a sense of accomplishment. I'm finally going to get rid of that bastard Sonic, and the only other person who could have took his place, Shadow. Now, with the abilities that I have managed to collect from the woman and input into my robots, and also what I managed to collect from the man. My robots will become unstoppable; even if Sonic and Shadow were still free they would have no chance of defeating them. Side note; as an evil genius I should really learn to stop talking to myself." Eggman looked back at the camera's that are focused on the room with the hedgehogs in and sees his robots collecting them. "Put them in the cell with the humans, and Amy. The one that's designed to completely isolate and prevent Chaos energy from escaping or doing damage to it." He ordered his robots. He sees the robots carrying them in the correct direction "Excellent." He said to himself.

* * *

"Argh, it's a load of crap being thrown in here!" Shouted Amy impatiently because she was now trapped inside a cell. Kicking the wall, before she grabbed her toe in pain her eyes watering. "That fat idiot Eggman should let us out or Sonic will be here to kick his ass!"

"Kicking the wall will not solve anything, you should be more concerned about what is inside the room, this poor man here looks like he might die." Said the woman, calm and mellow. She was dressed in combat print jeans with a grass green top on and a combat print jacket. She was kneeling beside a man on the floor.

"Oh yeah, I completely forgot about him." Coming over to the man, he looked as pale as death, wounds covering his body from when he had tried to escape; he had left a nice puddle of blood on the floor. "But what can I do to help?"

"I do not know just try and think of something." She said impatiently. "I've been trying for so long but all I can do is help with prolonging his life. Not save it." Amy sat there, she did not know what to do, but all she could think about was the Chaos Emerald in her hiding place nice and hidden away.

"I would use this Chaos Emerald, but I have no idea how to manipulate Chaos energies. I've tried many times, but to no success." Amy looked sad. "By the way, what's your name?"

"My name? My name is Anna, pleased to meet you. Now back onto the subject; if you are going to try and use Chaos energy to revive him please do it on the opposite side of the room to me, as I always end up getting really ill if I'm exposed to any Chaos energy, I do not know why." She said quickly, moving to the other side of the room. Getting as far away as possible as fast as possible.

Amy started to think, just maybe she would be able to do something, so she asked Anna to look away, and went to her clever hiding place, somewhere Dr Eggman would never think to look, even though she struggled and it hurt like hell to get it there, and it would probably hurt like hell to get it back out again, so was just about to pull it out when the door opened, she quickly removed her hand from where it was going.

It was then that Amy realised why the door had opened. They were dragging Sonic inside! She then noticed another being behind him. Shadow as well! Something big must be going on, if Eggman had caught both Sonic and Shadow, this could mean the end of the world as they knew it! Amy looked at Sonic and realised what a bad state he was in she gasped. Sonic's arm was broken and leaking blood, it also looked as if he might have some broken ribs, and he had some dried blood round his mouth. Then she looked at Shadow to see his face covered in blood from what looked like a broken nose and a cracked skull, also him leaving a blood trail behind him from some form of bleeding from his back and his shoulder. It was the worse she had ever seen either of them. The robots dumped the two hedgehogs in the room and proceeded to leave. "You bastards, what have you done to Shadow and Sonic!" She started running towards the robots. "You wankers, I hate you, you god damn robots!" The robot just grabbed her arm at her feeble attempt of an attack, and threw her back in the room, to find Anna catching her. "I will not forgive you!" She shouted as the doors closed behind the robots.

"Stop shouting, we need to do what we can in the time we have. Heal the man and then heal those two as quick as you can, go on!" Anna said. Rushing her along with what she was about to do.

"But I'm not even sure if I can do it." She spoke walking towards the man. Pulling the purple Chaos Emerald from its safe refuge, not entirely clean. The Emerald expanded again, going back to its full size. Amy hadn't even realised it had shrunk to fit where she had hid it. She kneeled besides him and held the Chaos Emerald with both hands. "I do not even know if you can heal someone with a Chaos Emerald." The stuff on the Chaos Emerald dripping on the man, each drop healing the surrounding area. Amy noticed this "Apparently it can." She said in surprise.

Anna put her hands on top of Amy's. "I believe in you, you can do it." Anna smiled at Amy, but only briefly. "Now do it."

"Chaos... Heal!" Amy exclaimed; and to her surprise the man was bathed in a warm yellow light. She saw that the wounds on the man started closing at a rapid rate. Amy smiled at Anna. "I did it!"

"Yeah, well done, now I'm going to the corner furthest away to sleep." Anna replied drearily, she looked as white as a sheet. Amy had forgotten about what Anna had said about the Chaos Emeralds, and looked at her worriedly.

Suddenly the man opened his eyes to see a pink female hedgehog kneeling over him with her eyes closed and a look of concentration on her face, he reached out with his hand and feels the warmth of her hand with his fingers and the cold of the Emerald with his hand, which felt a little damp. Amy looked at his hand and then at him and her cheeks grows a little red. "Looks like I was saved by an angel." He announced looking into her eyes, and smiling. Her cheeks growing redder from him complimenting her, she never got complimented by anyone. Then he moved his hand off hers and the Emerald, and he noticed that there is in fact something wet on his hand from the Emerald. "What's this?" He smelt it, Amy going redder and redder by the second, "That's one weird sent." He licked it off his hand to see what it tasted like "Tastes nice though." The man looked back at Amy to see that she was very red. "Why are you so red?" He asked her.

By this time Amy's face had gone redder than a tomato. "N-no Reason." She managed to stutter.

"Okayy..." He says in the slow 'you're weird' kind of way. "What is your name?"

"A-Amy, Amy Rose." Her face just getting even redder.

"Well Ms Rose, my name is Slayde, Slayde Demise." Slayde smiled again, a really warm smile. "Do not take my last name the wrong way though; I'm nicer than you think." He says while sitting up. His aches and pains from being beaten up from his attempted escape gone wrong. "Bloody hell, those guys are in a bit of a state are not they?" He exclaims, pointing at the two injured hedgehogs, Sonic and Shadow.

She looks at them with a look of dawning, snapping her out of her spell of embarrassment "Woops that reminds me! I need to go heal them too." She scurries over to go heal Shadow first as he has a head injury after wiping the Emerald in a discrete way that Slayde noticed, but didn't mention. "Chaos Heal!" Slayde watched as all of Shadow's wounds start closing up, his skull started to reform and blow out again, Slayde then realised that it was probably what it looked like when she was doing it to him, and she may have closed her eyes because it looked far too weird. After most of Shadows wounds had disappeared he opened his eyes and looked at Amy like he was trying to remember something. "Rose? What are you doing here?"

"Healing you silly, since there is no one else round who is going to do it." Amy said kindly, she had a really nice tone in her voice. Though she suddenly seemed to be a lot more tired than after she finished healing Slayde.

"How are you healing me? Since when could you use Chaos powers?" He sounded ungrateful as he pushed her arm aside but remained lying down.

"Since a few minutes ago Shadow, when I healed Slayde here." She said pointing at Slayde.

"Very well then." Shadow said closing his eyes again and frowning as if thinking of something long forgotten, looking bored and as if he simply wanted to lay there for a while longer. Amy took the hint and moved on to the remaining hedgehog, Sonic, sitting so that she was in the middle of the two, though oddly Sonic and Shadow were quite a distance away, and got ready and into position to heal him too.

"Chaos Heal!" His injuries began to disappear and his bone moved back into place, and with a loud crack! The bone seemed to move back into its proper position, fully healed.

He opened his eyes "Hey, fancy you being the one who saved me for once, eh Amy?" He got up looking at Shadow who had just looked at him.

"What is he doing here?!" They both exclaimed in unison. Pointing at each other "I hope you did not heal him too!" Both speaking the same things again. "Shut up." They both shouted.

"They're like twins." Slayde thought rolling his eyes and sweat dropping. He noticed Amy, looking scared standing between both of them right in the middle and also looking extremely tired from the healing she performed. They both charged at each other at the same time, both unaware that Amy was right in between them due to their anger, both swinging a fist at each other approaching the speed of sound.

Both were on the opposite sides of the room and then all of a sudden, without anyone else to call, Amy screamed "Slayde!" Suddenly there was a flash of green light and Slayde found himself right in front of her, her face right in front of his face as he was kneeling; holding both the fist of Shadow in one hand, and the fist of Sonic in the other. Suddenly there was a bright green light, emitting from the Chaos Emeralds that was digging into both his legs and both his arms, and from what seemed like one Emerald in both Sonic and Shadow's fur plus the one Amy was holding; it seemed they had the seven Chaos Emeralds right there in the room, and as time froze all of their bodies, colour scheme reversing on everything including Slayde's body. All he could see was Amy's face as his mind was left untouched by the time distortions that held their bodies.

* * *

"Eggman you lying bastard what happened?" Shouted Tails over his connection with Robotnik. "I thought we made a deal that you would let Amy go as soon as you were sure you had Sonic?"

"Well, there were complications." Robotnik sounded angry on the other end of the line. "We can not seem to open the doors to the cell that they are all in, and I have a feeling that all of the Emeralds are in there." Robotnik thinking about how clever he thought he was putting them in a Chaos proof cell.

"Well can not you just check? It is your cell after all, it's bound to have something weird in it like let's say, a security camera?" Tails replied cockily.

"A camera? A _camera_?! I _wish_ there was a _camera_ in there, that place was built to prevent any Chaos energy from leaking out you bloody fool, I could not afford to have a _camera_ in there, it would be a way to break out!" Eggman replied heatedly. "The only way in and out is that really secure metal door that is virtually indestructible and impervious to any Chaos attack. It was meant as the only way out and in to ensure maximum security, after that man escaped I put the woman in there, and him back in once he was recaptured, I was about to put Rouge in there too, until she escaped and I have no idea where she went, but I still managed to put Amy in there once I was done with her."

"So how do you plan on opening the doors then?" Tails asked. Panicking, sad. Missing his best friend already.

"I do not know if they even will open, but I'm going to try my best to get in there, because I'm sure Sonic and Shadow will have at least a Chaos Emerald each, my idiot robots forgot to check first, and when they were just about to go in to see the controls froze. I believe that someone attempted to set off Chaos Control in there, and now the place is frozen including the doors."

"It's a fair theory, but what's saying if you manage to open the doors, what will happen to the Chaos control then? Will it break? Or spread, you have to think this through." Tails then started worrying about the whole word being sealed within some kind of 'Chaos control limbo.'

There was silence for a second, then Robotnik laughed his evil laugh. "Oh I am thinking Tails, and what you fail to realise is, with Sonic and Shadow out of the way, I'm free to take over the world!"


	2. 01 A Desperate Future

_A Desperate Future_

"And that's how it all started, Eggman's uprising, or as so many liked to call it 'The End of the World.'

"Ironically it ended up happening on the day many people predicted it would, the 21st of December, 2012 at exactly 1200H. Quite a fluke if you ask me, though many people say it was destiny, well, the robots started to invade, within the day they already had managed to get round the whole planet, I know not of how they did it, I just know they did. They slowly managed to get within all government headquarters and force surrender on every single country... Sometimes we wonder how we could have made it so easy for Eggman? Couldn't we have prepared for him better?

"A couple of years later there were not many people left opposing the 'Eggman rule.' Just small groups of Freedom fighters trying to win back their freedom across the globe. We all kept in contact and helped each other out, but it can be very hard, there's just no one who is completely not scared of Eggman. Even Knuckles admitted to me that he was scared once, just once. That was just after they had managed to invade Angel Island and take away the Master Emerald, no one knew what they were going to do with that Emerald until it was too late…

"Suddenly the world started shaking! And we found ourselves in a jumbled up world, where somehow Eggman had managed to make Mobius and Earth fuse together! Eggman, soon after that started taking over all the bits of Earth that had come through, and little by little he took over them all as well, after a few more weeks, though it gave us more freedom fighters, and some of them were highly trained fighters, but none of that mattered, we are still all under rule. Under rule by a tyrant, an evil tyrant... We all wait for the day when that door is finally opened, that door that Eggman wants to open to get the Chaos Emeralds, it's been over five years since that door was sealed, as it is now 1st of January 2018, but we are sure it'll open again, one day, Sonic will come back! And, with him, our, freedom!"

Tails concluded his speech to all of the freedom fighters. He was attempting to prepare and encourage any and all of the new recruits, it wasn't for lack of survivors the resistance was small, but lack of willing fighters. The broadcast was on every freedom fighter channel being sent out, but someone else saw it, someone who should not have done.

"Oh will it really Tails? We'll just have to wait and see, I've finally found out how to use the Master Emerald to neutralise the Chaos Emeralds, so I can finally open that door, and claim the Emeralds as my own!" Robotnik starts to laugh manically, he laughs for so long that he starts coughing, and goes into a coughing fit. Quickly grabbing his inhaler he takes in a large 3 puffs. "Fucking hell, I should really go easy on the laughing the doctor was right, it'll be the death of me because of my asthma... And I'm still talking to myself!"

"Doctor." A mechanical voice filled the room as the large double doors leading to the room opened up. A robot looking identical to Sonic but metallic and more menacing walked into the room.

"Yes Metal Sonic, what is it?" Robotnik asked impatiently clearly irritated by the interruption. Turning round so that he could see one of his five greatest creations and achievements.

"We are ready to neutralise the Chaos field inside of the room Doctor. Should we proceed to doing it right away?" Metal Sonic stood there, red LED eyes unblinking, as Robotnik surveyed him.

"Yes Metal Sonic, I would like to see this door opened and my Chaos Emeralds to be retrieved as soon as possible." Eggman grinned evilly, stroking and twirling his moustache with his left hand. Metal Sonic started to walk out the room carry a strange contraption which was the height of an average human and 3 times wider than himself completely made of a heavy looking metal with various dials and lights on it. There was a small opening though that revealed the Master Emerald inside "Though Metal Sonic." Metal Sonic stopped in his tracks standing just outside the double doors. Turning round to face Robotnik but he still kept the object lifted up in his hands.

"Yes Master?" Metal Sonic had turned round fully now surveying his master.

"Before you start make sure to have Metal Shadow, Mecha Amy, and Mecha Rage with you, just in case." Eggman schemed. Knowing that as powerful as Metal Sonic was compared to his biological counterpart, he may not be able to take all five in there at once. Though Metal Sonic and Mecha Amy would probably be enough.

"But sir I..." Metal Sonic started, clearly wanting to prove himself to Robotnik.

"But! I did not make you to but! I made you to listen and follow my orders! Now wait for all of them to arrive or consider yourself scrapped." Eggman shouted angrily and slammed the doors shut with a button on his keyboard.

A robotic laugh was heard to the left of Metal Sonic "You got told by Eggman." Mecha Rage was laughing at him, while leaning on a wall, slowly sliding down it because he was laughing so hard. Metal Rage was a hedgehog based robot. He was very similar to what a Shadow bot would be with black metal covering him where his quills would be but had blue stripes on him where Shadow would have his red. Also he had neon red eyes, being the only one of the cyborgs with Mobian eyes. This robot was slightly taller than Sonic or Shadow.

"I had the situ..." Metal Sonic started shouting. Enraged that Robotnik thought of him as that weak.

"Quiet you two, we have orders." Metal Shadow said calmly. Metal Shadow looked like his counterpart in almost every way. The only differences being his red LED eyes and metallic skin.

"Stop telling me what to do Metal Shadow." Metal Sonic Argued. Mecha Rage was still laughing and his laughter was suddenly joined by girlish yet mechanical giggling.

"You two are always so funny!" Mecha Amy sniggered as she arrived, she then proceeded to lean her back on Mecha Rage's chest, and a slight 'ting' was heard. Mecha Amy too was like her counterpart, but she had longer metallic 'quills' that reached down to her shoulders and dark pink LED lights for eyes.

"Let's just get on with this so I can return to my other, more important, missions please!" Metal Shadow said getting annoyed with the other three. None of them listened as well as he did and it annoyed him. Mecha Amy was the only one out of them he could stand let alone bare working with.

"Yes let's." Metal Sonic carried the machine outside making his way to the Chaos containment cell as the others followed. He placed it down in front of the cell and typed some things into the machine containing the Master Emerald. "Get ready, this should be fun."

"Hmpf, should be no problem." Exclaimed Metal Shadow. Getting himself into Shadow's usual defensive stance in preparation for battle.

"This should be fun!" Shouted Mecha Amy happily. Grabbing the large hammer, that's head was larger than her body and handle as thick as her arms, off her back.

"Let's get on with this. I want to watch some wimps lose." Mecha Rage said calmly, smirking, not even attempting to hold up a defensive position. The machine containing Master Emerald made a beeping noise. The Chaos Control created so long ago was ceasing.

* * *

As suddenly as it started, the inverted colours faded, Amy's face was still in front of Slayde's unmoving for the past five years slowly moved into a face of shock, it seemed like he was the only one with a mind that did not freeze, his body felt oddly different. He realised he was no longer kneeling, and, he was in fact standing. Though Amy's face was still right in front of him, if not a tiny bit lower than his face. He lets go of Sonic and Shadows fists and they too back away with looks of confusion and shock on their face. "What going on?" Slayde ask Amy, wondering if he had in fact shrunk and they had noticed.

"You-You-. You've changed." She stuttered, putting it simply. Face of bewilderment lighting up her features.

"Why? What do you see?" Slayde asked politely. Equally confused myself.

"A hedgehog, with black quills and blue streaks running through them, erm... And your eyes..." She said dreamily. "You have sapphire blue eyes that sparkle with life, that look so beautiful, and entrancing..." She told him in a dreamy way.

"Cool!" He exclaimed. "I always wanted to be a hedgehog again!" He smiled at Amy. Amy was about to say something but then the shouting started again.

"Why did you ram me you fool of a Rodent!" Shadow started preparing himself to pounce.

"Because you're a filthy god damn traitor is why!" Sonic came back with. Leaving Shadow looking confused.

"What the heck are you on about?!" Shadow shouted back. Looking at Sonic like he'd gone mad.

"I'm on about you turning to Eggman and...!" Sonic started but he was cut off by a rather irritated looking Slayde.

"Guys! Shut up!" He bellowed at them both. They both looked at him equally irritated, yet as they were both as annoyed at each other they stopped arguing to see what Slayde had to say. "Now, what went on Shadow?" Slayde asked calmly, sighing in exasperation.

"Sonic here, decided it would be funny if he hit me up against a wall! As if I did not already have enough problems without him being stupid!" Shadow spoke really irritated and edgy. Snapping at Slayde for interrupting their little argument. Sonic looked like he was about to say something but Slayde held his hand up to stop him. Slayde then checked that Shadow was finished and he nodded. Then he looked at Sonic.

"And why did you do that Sonic?" Slayde asked Sonic calmly, Sonic almost exploded with the rage he had been suppressing.

"Because Tails informed me that fake Hedgehog over there is working for Dr. Eggman." Sonic stated heatedly. "He had a picture of him killing a human!" Slayde quickly looked back to Shadow for his explanation.

"Then you were misinformed, or at least, Tails was and told you what he thought was right. The man I killed was a mass murderer who was giving the world a lot of trouble with avoiding arrest. I was forced to act outside the nations as that way there would be no panic." Shadow informed the group, finally calm. Thinking of Sonic as an idiot and a fool.

Suddenly the door started to open.

"Looks like hugs and kisses will have to wait guys, we have company." Slayde shouted as four beings walked in, well four robots, but each of them seemed familiar each of them looked like each of a respective hedgehog, except for Slayde's, who looked like Shadow but with blue stripes.

"Luckily, they are all still alive." Metal Sonic stated. Standing near the control panel. He was obviously the one who opened the door.

"Well that makes it all the more fun does not it?" Mecha Rage said, sounding quite happy and cheerful for a robot.

"Let's just get this over with." Metal Shadow said impatiently. Walking towards the doorway.

"Yay! Fight time!" Went Mecha Amy cheerfully. Jumping up and down on the spot.

All of Hedgehogs put up their defences. Shadow made the first move. Rushing at his doppelgänger and Chaos Controlling him further outside as Metal Sonic dived right for his organic counterpart. Amy pulled out her hammer and Mecha Amy ran away slowly, trying to tempt the real Amy into following her outside the room, and Amy followed her. The robot whom was unknown to Slayde just stood there and looked at him blankly. Sonic went flying towards the side of its head as it just stood there. The robot simply ducked and let Sonic fly over his head out the door as Metal Sonic rushed after him. Suddenly it spoke. "I was expecting a human to be here." It said bluntly. Neither happy nor unhappy about the fact he wasn't human.

"You must have been misinformed then. What's wrong? Disappointed?" Slayde said cheekily to the robot. In an attempt to provoke it. Its oddly realistic mouth simply smirked.

"On the contrary. As great as humans are with their intelligence they are no match for a Mobians strength or speed." The robot continued to watch him. Slayde carefully tried to work out why he hadn't attacked him yet. "I am called Mecha Rage, though I prefer just Rage. Who are you and how did you get in there?" Rage asked Slayde.

'The doctor knows as little as I thought he did. Good I don't want it to get out.' Slayde thought. Thinking upon his past. "I am Slayde Demise. Your average hedgehog." Slayde told the robot, intent on tricking him. Expecting Rage to come back with some kind of witty comeback.

"How odd, the human that was trapped in here was called that. I'm guessing the Chaos Emeralds did something to you. It did to the rest, haven't you noticed that you are all taller than normal Mobians?" Rage laughed slightly. He was incredibly calm for someone with orders to destroy. Slayde suddenly noticed that Rage was indeed right and couldn't work out how he couldn't have noticed that. Or indeed why it had happened.

"So I'm the human, what does that mean to you. Going to kill me?" Slayde replied to him cockily.

"Nope." Rage said simply. "If anything Robotnik would want you specifically alive. He would want to know why you've changed so much. He's better with biology now. I should know!" He smirked at Slayde. Still not making a move towards Slayde he glanced outside of the room. "How about we just watch and enjoy." He gestured outside letting my hand go. Slayde looked at him suspiciously but he didn't look like he was up to anything. "I would rather find out who looks like they will win this battle over all before participating. If I do at all." He said as he walked outside. Looking behind to him to check if Slayde was following him. They both walked outside together and a terrible sight greeted Slayde; the sky was black.

Slayde stood there staring at the sky, the whole thing was covered by black smog, and the sun barely came through. Slayde knew from being conscious that a long time had passed, but he would never have guessed that it was long enough for so big a change. It must have been years.

"Amazing isn't it?" Rage asked. Slayde looked at him in horror. "Such a large change has happened to the planet that you knew. This isn't even technically Mobius anymore." Rage looked slightly amused but, for some odd reason, he looked like he was unhappy underneath. "Shit happens I suppose." Sounding slightly... Disappointed? Slayde was unsure. Luckily he had a good pair of ears on him or he wouldn't have picked it up. As metallic as the voice sounded there was definitely some form of organic from it. In fact it sounded more like a Mobian trying to sound like a robot than a robot trying to sound like a Mobian.

"What happened? Do you know how long we've been in there for?" The whole place seemed so odd to Slayde. Like where did the roof to the building go? Where was the rest of the base? How could it have just disappeared into nothingness? Why is the sky so dark? So many questions plagued his mind. Rage stood there. Gazing into the sky. It was like he was deep in a trance.

"You've all been in there for over five years." Rage eventually told him, the surprise on Slayde's face was evident.

"Five years? What in the name of Chaos!" Slayde looked extremely surprised and couldn't work out how or why his Chaos Control had gone wrong and done this. Slayde looked right at Rage as he continued to look into the sky.

"During that time. Robotnik has done many things, including taking over the world, he has fused earth and Mobius together by using the Master Emerald all within Sonic's absence." Rage turned away from the sky looking at Slayde while he was speaking, trying his best to look into Slayde's eyes his neon red eyes giving off compassion.

'_A compassionate robot. Great. That's just odd.'_ Slayde thought. "So what are your plans?" Slayde asked the robot.

"I have two sets of plans. Just hush. Wait and see. I shall announce them at the end of the battles." Rage said. Turning his head slowly to observe the battles. "And now we wait." He announced.

"And now we wait." Slayde agreed. Watching the battles having decided that Rage was, at least currently, not a threat.

* * *

(I'm going to describe the following battles in first person so that I can explain thoughts and emotions easier.)

_Shadows P.O.V._

I looked over to the opening door to see four robots standing on the other side. One looking like Sonic working the control panel. Scanning them I noticed one looking just like me, causing my blood to boil. I had enough copy cats on my plate with Sonic imitating me, I did not need another doppelgänger. The fake let its guard down slightly, I could easily tell thanks to my enhanced sight, so I decided to make the first move against them and charged at my foe at full speed with full intention to kill.

As I was dashing at him with my incredible speed, I noticed him start to smirk, he threw up some defences to make it impossible for me to kill him in one hit. I quickly changed the way I was attacking, making a last minute decision to use Chaos Control and teleport him outside a bit further away to ensure we weren't interrupted. As soon as the transport had occurred I looked back to check the room was still within sight, I knew instinctively it would be though as I knew I could only teleport so far without an Emerald or I would drain my energy.

Feeling a fist in my stomach due to my temporary lapse in paying attention to the robot caused me to cough. Winding me marginally so I shook it off catching its next punch thrown at my face. Quickly twisting its arm trying to break it, it threw another punch at my face forcing me let go before I managed to however and to dodge out the way. It looked at me from a few meters away. Surveying my every move and trying to work out my next move. I decided a feint was in order. Charging towards his right I started to swing a punch at him, suddenly shifting my direction with my airs shoes and coming from the left just as I was about to contact, and I found my fist caught in his hand. "You'll have to do a lot better than that to try and get one over on me." The robot taunted.

I threw a punch at him with my left hand as I tried to kick him with my right leg. He managed to catch the punch as he smirked but suddenly went flying backwards when my leg connected to his stomach. Causing it to fly backwards into and through a metal wall that was standing alone, the wall went all the way back to the room we were in. I pause to catch my breath, it seemed for this battle I would have to do what even I would not normally think to do. I put my sight back towards the hole in the wall to see the doppelgänger, clawing his way back through.

He looked up at me and charged, his metal fingers creating a blade which cut me slightly as I tried to stop the blow to the head. Quickly in less than a second I tore off my restrictors, giving me a sudden boost in power. I grabbed its fist as it swung it at me and I tore off its arm as blood poured out of the now open wound, it screamed in pain. It quickly tried to dispatch of me with its other arm as I stabbed it right in the heart area with the metal armour on the arm I had torn off. Hoping that it would work and this thing was indeed dependant on a heart. The cyborg shrieked at me loudly in my ears and started to take a swing at me. I flung up my hand in defence but all that was there to catch was a limp metal arm as the figure collapsed to the floor.

I looked round to see if anyone was fighting to see Amy kneeling on the floor next to her doppelgänger. I saw the ex-human standing next to the robot that looked like none of us, maybe a little like him but it would have been impossible for the Doctor to predict that would happen. Besides the eyes, the length of quill and type of quill were wrong. The robot had neon red eyes and the quills looked like a shorter version of Sonic's. Whereas the ex-humans quills looked like mine. I couldn't see Sonic so I assumed he was still fighting and shrugged, I quickly put my restrictors back on before I drained my own energy.

I turned my attention back to my doppelgänger. It was odd so I decided some experimenting was in order. Grabbing the arm I ripped off, I proceeded to ripping off the armour.

* * *

_Amy's P.O.V._

I tore my eyes away from the deadly enticement of Slayde's blue eyes to see four robots outside, I saw that three of them looked like us. The other one looked similar to Slayde but not quite the same. Suddenly Shadow shot towards his counterpart. Chaos Controlling them both outside. Immediately after Shadow had gone outside, the metallic Sonic dashed for Sonic, knocking him backwards. I clicked my fingers to summon my hammer into my hand. As my robotic copy ran slowly away from me, I could tell it was a taunt to get me to follow her. I decided that I would join in with the battle.

I ran out the doors after my robotic copy. For one of Robotnik's creations she sure was slow as I caught up to her within seconds, only a few seconds as I had hit her in the side with my hammer, causing her to stagger. She quickly turned round and watched me as I stared at her, each one of us avoiding making the next move, afraid to be countered. I suddenly saw Sonic go flying out the room with Metal Sonic in pursuit. In my moment of distraction she suddenly jumped at me and I held up my hammer as a barrier, she quickly grabbed the handle along with me as we started to wrestle over who would have my hammer. I noticed she start to kick so I quickly held up a leg to block it but as I did that my upper concentration slipped and I got a punch in the head barely missing my temple. Forcing me to let go of my hammer as I fell over smacking the back of my head on the ground.

The copy quickly held up my hammer over her head. Bringing it down suddenly. I rolled over to try and dodge it but she caught my left arm under the hammer and I felt it crack. I screamed in pain as the robot Amy laughed mechanically. Quickly getting up I put my right arm into a defensive position being completely unable to move my left arm. She swing the hammer down from atop her head again, this time I simply pushed it to the side with my right arm, I moved in behind the hammers head punching my enemy in the face. The punch caused her to stumble backwards but she didn't let go of the hammer. As I hit her the hammers edge hit me slightly, knocking me over, it made my vision go black for a split second before I pulled myself together, quickly standing up in order to watch her if she prepared another attack on me.

I looked round to find her but could see nothing. Quickly spinning round to see if she was behind me the hammer connected with my right arm, fracturing the bone of my right arm and rendering my last hope useless. I dodged a second swing from her as she grinned. "Why not just give it up? There's no Sonic to save you. He's still fighting." Amy dodged again. Ignoring the taunts and trying to think of a way to get out of this mess. Amy was suddenly pinned up a wall and suddenly feeling the wall shake, she thought that this would be her last moments as she watched the Amy robot lift the hammer above her head one last time.

Suddenly a sword came through her neck. The sword was coated in blood as she dropped the hammer and just hung there on the end of the sword. The sword was swiftly withdrawn causing the unmoving robots neck to leak out blood as the cyborg collapsed. Slayde stood there on the other side, sword in his hand. "Are you okay?" He asked. I nodded quickly, not wanting to show Slayde I was petrified of him. He used Chaos control to go back to the unknown robot and handed him the sword. It confused me but I was in too much pain to care. I quickly looked to see Shadow ripping off an arm and Sonic punching his doppelgänger in the face causing him to fly into a boulder.

Sitting down I realised I could move my right arm again. Thinking that my new powers gave me some kind of fast healing I held my right arm over my left. Attempting to heal it. I felt power coarse through my veins as the bone healed. Feeling drained I stayed sat and looked over at Shadow again. He looked like he'd finished his fight too.

* * *

_Sonic's P.O.V._

I glanced over at the opening door to see four robots standing there. I noticed one of them specifically. "Looks like someone's brought good old metal back." I thought to myself bitterly. I saw Shadow teleporting one of them away as Metal came flying towards me, I attempted to raise my arms in time for a block but he knocked me back. I slammed into the wall and bounced back up immediately, just to get hit again from behind, I went flying over the only robot that was left unmoving he barely ducked in time or I would have took his head clean off. Flying outside the door I landed gracefully on the floor, quickly peaking to the side to see that Ames was fighting to the left of the door where as I was on the right. Looking back I found myself being smacked into again, flinging me further away from Amy. "Right that's enough of me getting hit for one day." I thought. Standing up and quickly preparing myself from him this time.

I saw Metal heading towards me with a punch ready. I quickly prepared my own punch I swung my punch, meeting his punch head on with mine, we both stumbled backwards slightly due to the impact before quickly moving back towards each other. I threw a punch at his head, but he dodged, he threw a punch at my jaw, but I dodged it, both of us quickly moved back, staring each other down. This repeated for a few minutes.

I quickly charging up a bit of energy in my hand, trying to break the cycle, I yelled "Sonic wind" as I launched a bolt of blue energy at my foe. The blue energy shot by him creating a small dint in the large stone, a boulder, behind Metal but it did its job. I punch Metal in the face, causing him to go flying back into the boulder. I dashed over, rage getting the better of me as I started punching Metal in the face continuously, occasionally kicking him in the stomach creating a bigger and bigger dent in the boulder. Metal carried on screaming at me but I didn't care. I just wanted to be rid of him once and for all. I carried on until the LED light eyes faded out, confirming he was dead.

I just left him in the dented boulder, not wanting to be near him as he just pissed me off. I noticed Slayde looking at me, I guess he saw, but I don't care. Looking round I notice that I'm the last one to win. Amy had already walked up to Slayde and the robot standing next to him was grinning. Shadow was studying something not too far away from the others. "Ah shit!" I exclaimed as I heard something move behind me.

* * *

Halfway through the battles Slayde suddenly remember that there was a fifth person in the room. "Could you just excuse me for a second?" Slayde asked Raged politely. Rage nodded, keeping a close eye on Slayde as he re-entered the room. He could see her laying down in the corner of them room, back towards him.

"Hey, are you ok?" Slayde asked her quietly. No reply. "Hey! Are you okay?!" He half shouted at her to make sure she heard. Still no reply. He went up to the woman and looked over the top of her, because he couldn't see what she looked like from behind. Her face was gaunt like she had been starved for many years, freaked out and curious, Slayde tried to pick her up and her body just turned to dust inside the clothes. "Shit!" Slayde shouted dropping what was left of her body back to the ground in surprise. He looked to the floor and saw the Chaos Emeralds laying on the floor, he went over and placed them in his quills "Best not leave these laying round for the Doctor to find."

Slayde thought he best go back outside to watch the progressing battles, looking at Sonic's. Slayde can see that he and Metal Sonic are in an intense fist fight. Slayde then look over to Shadows battle, seeing him knocking his doppelgänger into the metal wall that ran all the way up to the room.

Slayde looked down the wall towards Amy seeing she was pinned up against the wall and Mecha Amy walking towards her hammer held high gave him an odd feeling, an urge to protect her, something he'd never felt for anyone or anything before. Slayde rushed towards her, to be stopped by Rage. "Move out the fucking way!" Slayde shouted at him.

"Wait." Rage threw him a sword. "Aim for the back of the neck." He said helpfully. Slayde nodded at him, using Chaos Control to stab Mecha Amy in the neck just in time. The body went limp on the sword and then Slayde quickly withdrew his sword.

"Are you okay?" Slayde asked Amy. Amy just nodded in response, clearly petrified by both the attempt on her life and Slayde killing off the robot. Slayde teleported his way back to Rage, giving him back his sword. "Thanks for the advice."

"No problem. I could see you have feelings for that one." Rage replied, grinning at Slayde in a knowing way.

"What do you mean by feelings?" Slayde asked. Genuinely confused.

"You know what I mean." Rage said knowingly. Slayde just ignored his comment, looking up to see Amy walking towards them fully healed and Shadow in the distance prying metal parts off the Shadow robot. Noticing that it was basically a Shadow with large chunks missing out of it. Like it was some sort of twisted cyborg.

I looked over to Sonic to see him beating the hell out of Metal Sonic, the copies eyes fading. He stood up and looked at me. Amy got to the group just as Sonic started walking towards us looking over Shadows way. Sonic shouted to himself. Obviously annoyed he was the last one to win. Suddenly there was movement behind Sonic, he started to turn but it was too late. Metal Sonic was seen on the other side of Sonic holding a sword dripping with red. Sonic just stood there still facing where Metal Sonic just was, a look of pure shock on his face. Metal Sonic pulled the sword out and blood spurted from his chest as he fell to the ground.

Sonic the Hedgehog was dead.


	3. 02 Hero and Villian

_Hero and Villain_

Robotnik was sitting in his 'throne' in the main computer room. It looked incredibly high tech in there. A large screen with three smaller ones atop of it dominated the wall in front of the throne numbers and other odd symbols popping up on the screen at random, a grand keyboard stretched out with innumerable keys on it. To the left of the throne the double doors were almost completely covering the wall. The other two walls were nothing special.

Robotnik looked over to the Black Emerald contained in an anti Chaos glass chamber on the left armrest of his seat, wondering how the robots were doing and how long it would take for them to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds. He looked up to his monitor, easily able to decipher the numbers and symbols appearing on the screen. As he sat there, thinking of the many places that he had conquered whilst becoming the leader of the world, he realised how glad he was to be blessed with such a high IQ. Getting bored he decided to switch on the radio and attempt to lock onto another freedom fighters broadcast.

After fifteen minutes of twiddling through millions of different signals with his radio, he got bored of trying to crack what the freedom fighters new frequency was. Robotnik pressed a few buttons on his keyboard and a large list of videos popped up onto the screen. Almost everyone containing the words "Death" and/or "Freedom Fighters" in. Robotnik started scrolling down the list of the videos. "Oh, what to watch today? I have a bit of killing freedom fighters here. Some more killing freedom fighters there, and oh, yes this one will do." He clicked on a small box with a picture of a camera on labelled 'Cell three.'

An image popped up on the screen of Tails in a cell. "Ahh, live footage of newly captured victims is so much better." Robotnik looked at Tails a little closer, examining Tails he saw that he was in fact missing a tail. Rendering his nickname pretty useless, but that was not all, his back was covered in scars, bruises and newly scabbed cuts, some very deep ones. Then Tails turned round.

Eggman laughed, for much to his pleasure, Tails was missing an eye. "Ho ho, that's what you get for fighting against the Robotic Empire!" Robotnik pressed a button to turn on the speaker that sent sound into Tails' cell. "Hello Tails, hope you're enjoying your comfortable cell. Us at Robotic Empires are hoping you have an enjoyable stay." Robotnik spoke sarcastically, with much glee in his voice.

"Eggman? You'll pay for this! The freedom fighters will get you and Sonic will come back and avenge me!" Tails shouted, spinning round looking for a camera. He located it and stared right into it.

"So you think Tails. Now onto more pressing matters. Where is the base of the mobile freedom fighters?" Robotnik exclaimed. He full well knew that Tails wouldn't reveal it but it was worth asking anyway.

"As if I would tell you that! You're not going to find out and I will not tell you." Tails said defiantly. A look of pure determination upon his face. "No one you capture ever shall!"

"Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot know bastard!" Robotnik shouted, enraged by Tails' statement. He quickly soothed his voice and calmed down. "Fine. If you refuse to tell me, then we'll just have to do it the hard way." Robotnik flicked a couple of switches. "Send in the interrogation droid..." Robotnik said quietly, the joy in his voice obvious.

The door opened and Tails' eye widened, but all that walked in was a small black robot shaped like a human child. "Hahaha, what's that small thing going to do?" Tails laughed, pointing at the tiny thing.

"Laugh all you want Tails, we'll see what happens..." Eggman sat on his throne smugly. Waiting in anticipation.

The robot moved up to Tails moving slowly it put its hand in front of Tails' head. "What're you doi-" The robot flicked tails in the head mid speech... Tails went flying back into the wall behind him. "Wow." Tails tried to stand up clutching his head, bleeding. "Who knew a small robot like that could pack such a punch?" Tails said in a disbelieving voice.

"Well Tails, are you willing to give up the location of the secret base? Or does my robot need to give you a true beating?" Eggman asked maliciously.

"I'll never tell you the location! Even if you try to kill me I will not tell you! I'll take this secret to the grave!" Tails exclaimed, putting on a very brave front as the robot approached him again.

"I may well kill you, you insolent bastard; but until I find an answer out of you I doubt I'll let you go so easily!" He shouted down the microphone. He flicked a switch to make it so that only the robot could hear him. "Robot, record the entire thing and make sure that you record any confessions he makes; apart from that, do not kill him unless he's told you the location of the freedom fighters base. Have fun..." The robot hit Tails again as Robotnik chuckled.

Robotnik switched off the microphone and its video output. He went to lay back in his throne. "Oh it's great to be me!" He looked up to his screens again, trying to decide what to do while he was waiting for his two important tasks to finish. He looked at the time, and thought it was getting to be quite long for the cyborg team, the Metals and Mechas to be getting back to him.

"Ah well, send an attack in on one of the places suspected of being the hide out for a freedom fighters mobile army." Robotnik instructed the computer in a dull monotone voice. "And make sure you kill everyone in sight of the place." He added before the computer confirmed.

He sat and watched his robotic troops closing in on the suspected area; it was a place reasonably close to where Tails was captured. He sat there and watched the screen. Suddenly gun fire started, someone was shooting his precious robots! About one hundred of the robots turned to go and attack the culprits of the resistance. The robots started blazing their laser shooters at the many freedom fighters that were scattered across the hard rocky ground.

Not one of them survived.

"Hahaha! No one should mess with me!" Upon commanding his camera robot to do so, the robot moved in closer and looked at the scenes of gore and horror. Blood had stained the grass and already ruined flowers. "This is not war! This is sport!" Robotnik exclaimed maliciously. "If those bastard animals want to fight me then fine; everyone loves a big hunt!" Robotnik shouted, clearly pleased with himself.

The robots drew closer to the presumed location of the temporary base. Robotnik sat there in anticipation, awaiting whether this was the correct place or not, when suddenly, his robots began to power down. Waves upon waves of robots, suddenly powering down and falling from the sky; going in a pattern that cascaded from the front, rapidly going backwards, suddenly the camera robot, which was near the back, went out.

"What? Since when did the freedom force have an EMP generator!" Robotnik exclaimed just as his camera robot went out. "Looks like those fools are doing better than I though... However, I'm going to have to resort to heavy measures." Eggman said with an evil grin. He lifted his hand in preparation of pressing a button, when suddenly the ground shook. Robotnik looked round mystified, unable to ascertain what had just occurred when suddenly an alarm went off. "What now?" He exclaimed. Clearly irritated at the sudden interruption of the alarm going off.

* * *

Amy screamed as Sonic's body fell to the floor. Slayde quickly used Chaos Control to teleport next to Sonic, back turned to Amy and Metal Sonic, catching Sonic's limp body as he fell forwards. Slayde warped back next to Amy, carefully placing Sonic's body on the floor next time him. Slayde stayed kneeled next to him, completely silent. Suddenly a metallic laughter filled the air. "Finally, I've done it! I've proven I'm the true Sonic!" Metal Sonic managed out through his dark laughter. "Now I sh-"

"Shut the fuck up!" Slayde bellowed, still looking down at Sonic's body, voice distorted slightly with rage, it was slightly deeper. More evil. Metal Sonic's laughter had stopped completely as a momentary look of fear appeared on his metallic face. Slayde was shaking slightly as if he was trying to keep his anger in.

There was silence from everyone as the wind blew slightly, creating a slight whistling noise and rustling some leaves far off in the distance, Shadow could be seen making his way to the scene in the background alerted by Slayde's shout. Metal Sonic started to laugh again. "I can do anything now! I have won over my greatest enemy!"

"How dare you." It was barely a whisper, but everyone heard it clear as day, a whisper that sounded like it was the wind itself. Slayde's quills rustled slightly despite the wind having stopped. Metal Sonic was silent again, not expecting to hear such a low whisper, especially over his laughter. "You? A mere cheap enhanced clone the true Sonic? We both know that's bollocks. Don't you dare say that again." Slayde was still speaking in a whisper, yet the sound carried like he was screaming at the top of his lungs. So much darkness and hatred could be heard within the whisper. Sending chills up the spines of everyone there, even the robots could feel the chills.

"You just worship that 'hero' and may well say that, but who just won?" Metal Sonic scoffed. Pushing off the odd instinct that Slayde was putting in him, an instinct that robots shouldn't have so he didn't know what it was.

The instinct to run.

Slayde chuckled darkly, sending shivers up everyone's spines again.

"Worship? Yeah right I hated him for that way he claimed all that glory. The way he saved the world and seemed to do it just for the attention, I thought he was scum." Slayde finally tore his vision away from Sonic's body. One of his eyes was a deep blood red, yet the other one was purple. "But y'know what? Meeting the guy, seeing the way he talked and the way he acted, I could see he wasn't in it for the glory. He held the weight of the world on his shoulders and just took it without a complaint. He did it for no real reason. Simply to help. That is a hero."

"Bu-" Metal Sonic started adamantly to get his point across. Suddenly having Slayde in front of him slightly to his right, a sonic boom sounded as, an arm heading towards his neck to use some form of "Coat hanger" move. There was no flash of light indicting Chaos control, yet no one saw him move, or at least it didn't look like anyone did. Slayde's arm collided with Metal Sonic's neck as Metal Sonic went flying backwards causing a sonic boom. Slayde had a simple effortless look on his face but right beneath the simpleness of it was darkness and rage. It was like when Sonic changed into dark super Sonic. His body was shimmering slightly as if he was in super form or dark super form, yet for some reason there was no visible chance to his fur colour.

Slayde was suddenly behind where Metal Sonic was heading, another sonic boom from Slayde was heard, as Metal Sonic tried to slow himself down. As Metal Sonic approached him, still moving at an incredible speed, Slayde jumped into the air, and what seemed to be in slow motion, kicked Metal Sonic in the side sending him to Slayde's left, much like a football player would volley a ball in the goal. Another sonic boom was heard as Metal Sonic was sent flying to the side, Slayde already waiting for him a mile away, this time consumed by a yellow flash of Chaos Control. Almost five seconds later Slayde was kicking Metal into the air, sending him upwards at over three hundred and forty meters per second, causing another sonic boom. Slayde just stood there looking up for almost half a minute. Suddenly disappearing to go where Metal Sonic was, they were both so far into the air that they couldn't really be seen, yet Shadow was keeping track of them. They must have been more than 5 kilometres in the air.

Slayde reappeared next to Amy, Rage and the now standing there Shadow. Standing about 3 meters from Sonic body, he stood there looking away from the group, his eyes closed and breathing deeply in a calming manner. Ten seconds later a speck could be seen falling down at an incredible rate. Another four and it hit the ground, followed immediately by a sonic boom. The impact made the earth shake and left a crater in the earth in the distance. Metal Sonic was moving at a speed close to four hundred and eighty meters per second, surpassing the speed of sound by more than a hundred, as he smashed into the ground.

Everyone looked at Slayde with looks of confusion. Amy also looked at Slayde with fear. The only person to have ever been known by them having a dark super form was Sonic. The Chaos Emeralds suddenly appeared round Slayde and suddenly flew off as he stumbled. The Chaos Emeralds had once again scattered from being used.

Shadow was the first one to snap out of it, being the most hardy as he was an ultimate life form, and he walked up to Sonic, kneeling next to him. "Erm guys?" Shadow spoke with confusion. Everyone looked at him but Slayde who was still trying to calm down. "I'm pretty sure that's a pulse." Shadow said, finger pressed onto Sonic's neck, Slayde head snapped up and dual coloured eyes looked at Shadow, one red and one purple, but just then suddenly alarms started going off.

* * *

"Computer! Tell me what's going on!" Robotnik bellowed at his computer. The computer was showing error messages, but Robotnik couldn't understand why. "Computer! What's happening! I demand you tell me this instant!" He carried on shouting at his computer.

"Error 5071. Severe damage to infrastructure has taken place. Warning. Warning." The computer read out systematically. A large three dimensional map appeared on the screen showing a multi layer large underground complex. Almost half of it was covered in red and the rest was white. Robotnik's eyes widened. What could have done this? Only a large bomb would be capable for doing that much damage to his base! Or perhaps a large meteor. "Warning. Warning. Freedom fighter defence 338 and 1B activated." Robotnik paused for a second, before realising what 1B was. Quickly grabbing the Black Emerald off the left side of his throne as he opened a cover on his right. Tucking his arms in he pressed the red button inside. He shot down a tube with just the base of his seat and bit of floor in front, knowing full well a replacement piece would cover his escape route.

He landed in a corridor with a small open door in front of it, a large room behind it, the alarm could be heard here too. The room was pitch black and nothing could be seen inside. "The way 'He' likes it." Robotnik thought, peering inside of the large room he knew contained everything someone would want in their life time. Yet there was not a movement inside. 'He' preferred to just sit still and think in the dark. "Defence system 1B has activated. The countdown went off as soon as the alarm was tripped. The base is going to explode in approximately thirty seconds."

Movement was now heard on the other side of the door, Robotnik standing just in front of the door in anticipation. "I need your help to take me to one of my other bases, preferably one quite far away from here." This scuffling stopped on the other side of the door as one blood red eye could be seen, no other part of the body was visible in the darkness. "Is that a yes then?" Robotnik questioned. A red gloved hand was extended, the arm covered in some kind of black clothing leaving no skin or fur visible. Robotnik took the extended hand in his right hand, his left protecting and holding the only truly worthwhile thing in the base, well, besides 'Him' of course.

Robotnik and the arm disappeared in a swirl of black 'light'. A few seconds later a loud explosion could be heard within the base, completely consuming the place that the two were standing just moments before with flames.

* * *

Looking in the distance Slayde could see where the alarms were coming from, as multitudes of robots had suddenly sprung up coming to attack them. Slayde assumed it was his attack earlier that caused it. He looked back to Shadow. Crouching down he whispered into Shadows ear "Get Amy to heal him, I'll try to fend off the robots with my remaining Chaos from the Emeralds." His voice still sounded tinted with darkness, but it was no longer as strong.

"But I can do it?" Shadow put up in protest. Looking at Slayde as he walked past the whole group going to face the robots heading their way.

"No." Slayde spoke assertively. "It's not something just anyone can do, you know this. Just do as I say." He stood there in a position fully ready to use his strength. Rage started to move up to the front too. "No. Stay there." Slayde said without looking at him.

Shadow was just about to throw up a protest, but Amy kneeled down on the other side of Sonic's body. "What was all that about?" She said, speaking concerned.

"It's nothing." Shadow replied. "You need to try and heal Sonic, it's the only way we can save him." Shadow told Amy. Amy looked at him puzzled, obviously wondering why Shadow couldn't just do it. "Only you can do it." He said through gritted teeth bitterly.

Amy bent over Sonic hands on either end of the large gash going from his left hip to his right shoulder. She closed her eyes as Slayde was heard clicking his fingers, a small white 'flame' of Chaos energy glowing on his forefinger. Slayde slowly started to draw a symbol with his finger, the energy leaving a trail behind. "Chaos Heal!" Amy spoke loudly, acting like the power was based on how loudly she said it. The robots were getting ever closer as Slayde finished his symbol.

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light coming from the area the robots came from as the ground beneath the robots started to crack. Everyone looked panicked but Slayde just calmly placed his hand on the symbol he wrote, the symbol rippled slightly as Slayde touched it. "Chaos..." Slayde announced in little more than a whisper. The explosion creeping up towards them as Slayde breathed in, it now mere tens of meters away. "Shield!" Slayde half shouted as the symbol glowed and put up a spherical pale white, see-through barrier round his whole team. The explosion flying past them obliterating everything like an atomic bomb, even the ground nearby them. Slayde remained standing at the symbol, holding the barrier up as flames licked its edges.

After what felt like several minutes from within the spherical shield the flames finally stopped, revealing the scene round them. There was basically nothing left except for burnt rock and scattered bits of metal left. Though the room was still intact just a little blackened. The ground had caved in, there being a 5 meter drop beneath the piece of rock they we standing on that was caught within the sphere of the shield. Slayde undid the shield slowly, allowing the rock they were standing on that had been caught within the shield to slowly descend to the scene of devastation and desolation beneath.

The rock carefully hit the ground as the shield was completely removed, Slayde started to fall backwards. Completely exhausted at the energy he just spent in total. He wasn't used to it right now. Rage caught him, preventing him from damaging any part of his body and laid him down carefully. He now owed his life to Slayde. Robotnik would have killed him without warning at any time. He now knew that and fully seized the free will that, out of the four cyborgs, he alone was powerful enough to take.

Rage looked back towards Amy to see her panting in exhaustion. "That's all I can manage." She panted. Sonic looked barely any different, it looked like she had merely scabbed the cut over. "I've healed his internal organs and placed them correctly, stopping the internal bleeding." Her eyelids drooped. Shadow put his hand on her shoulder.

"Well done, you've done enough. He should be able to pull through that himself quite easily. It'll just take him a while to regain his energy. Something that can't be healed." Shadow told her reassuringly. She smiled at him softly.

"Thank you Shadow." She spoke happily and now reassured she dropped off to sleep from the exhaustion of healing Sonic. Shadow looked up at Rage, realising that he was the only one left conscious besides himself. They stared each other down. Then suddenly Shadow noticed something.

"Since when were your eyes green?" Shadow looked at him, his eyes had changed from their original red colour to an emerald green colour. Rage stayed silent for a second then decided to ignore Shadow and proceeded to ripping off the metal glove covering his right hand. Revealing an average hedgehogs hand; fur on top, black, and a peachy brownish colour on the underneath, much like Sonic's belly. Rage continued to rip off all the armour he had covering both his arms, working from the hand up. "I asked you a question."

"You sure are nosey." Rage replied, looking at Shadow carefully. Rage drew his sword. "If you must know it was probably when I deactivated some of the mechanical parts attached to my body. I need to get them out quickly. Luckily Robotnik hasn't replaced anything I desperately need. Compared to the others he didn't do much, besides coating my bones with metal and putting armour on me that's almost impossible to remove." He stabbed the sword into his wrist, leaving a large slash in it. Dropping the sword he immediately stuck his forefinger and thumb into the self inflicted wound. He fished his fingers round slightly as blood seeped out, pulling a small chip out of his arm. "This is a tracking system for my unit." Rage explained. "I'd rather not be followed." He threw away the chip and looked back at his arm. It had already scabbed over and was no longer bleeding, likely to be healed within an hour, a healing speed akin to Shadow's.

Rage grabbed the helmet on his head, and pulled it off with a mighty rip of metal. Detaching it from the armour on his body. Pulling it off face first he revealed a face that looked like Shadow, but with Sonic's eyes. He twitched his nose a couple times, pulling the helmet off his quills. Revealing them to be similar to Sonic's but two of them were more like Shadow's.

Shadow looked down at the three bodies on the ground, Slayde, Sonic and then lingering on Amy, them all resting nicely. "I don't trust you at all. Just so you know. If it wasn't for the fact I saw you save Rose out the corner of my eye, I would have destroyed you by now." Rage just stayed quiet, carefully pealing the metal armour off his body. He grabbed his sword and cut his chest armour down the left hand side. Dropping the sword again he grasped either side of the armour and gave it a mighty pull, tearing it in two and finally revealing him fully. He looked like Sonic in physical shape, but his body was mainly black with blue stripes. Rage also had a tuft of white fur on his chest like Shadow. His eyes that Emerald green that Shadow could see beforehand.

"I know you don't." Rage finally spoke. He was completely naked but luckily Mobian males, and certain females, could get away with that. "But I'll try to give you reason to eventually." Shadow stood there with a doubtful look on his face. Arms crossed.

"Can you sense Chaos energies?" Shadow asked Rage. Looking into his eyes as the hedgehog checked himself for wounds with his hands. Rage nodded at Shadow. "Good, we need to try and find the largest mass of Chaos Energy coming from multiple people we can. It'll probably be a group of freedom fighters." Rage closed his eyes to concentrate as did Shadow. Rage opened his eyes again, looking at Shadow as he continued to search, unsure as to whether to say something or not.

"Do you feel that?" Rage asks Shadow. Shadow looked at him.

"You mean that weak signal beneath where we're standing?" Shadow questioned the question. Rage nods. "Yeah I do. I wonder what it is to be honest. It'll probably just be the Doctor or something." Rage looked at Shadow with piercing eyes. Shadow looks back with his. "Want to check it out?" Shadow questioned.

"Okay. I'll be back in a few." Rage disappeared in a flash of a light yellow light. Taking Shadow by surprise. Shadow really did not expect him to be able to use Chaos powers. Closing his eyes again, he went back to searching.

A few minutes later a sudden burst of light came through his eyelids. Shadow opened his eyes again to see Rage carrying a familiar fox. "Look what I found. Robotnik never told me he managed to capture this one." Shadow inspected the fox closely. It was hard to tell from all the burns, cuts and scars the fox had but it was fairly easy to ascertain that his fur was yellow. It was Tails missing a tail. Both eyes were closed but one eyelid had a scar running across it, making Shadow certain that the eye wasn't useful anymore. "We should probably bring him, he looks like he's on deaths door."

"I agree. Now try and find the point I did, it's about a thousand kilometres to the North West West." Rage closed his eyes for a few seconds then nodded. Able to find the point quite easily because Shadow had pointed it out. "Okay, grab that ex-human, and take him and the fox to the location. You do have enough energy stored for that right?" Rage nodded. Shadow quickly took his restrictor rings off his arms. Shadow knew he wouldn't be able to make it that far unless he used most his remaining energy. "This is the furthest I've ever teleported without an Emerald." He said, pocketing his restrictors as he put his arm round Amy's waist and rested his other hand on Sonic's head.

Rage carefully put Slayde over his shoulder and kept Tails under his arm pit in his left arm. "On the count of three right?" Shadow nodded. "One, two... Three!"

They both shouted in unison. "_Chaos control_!" Disappearing in a large green/yellow flash.

* * *

Robotnik was stood outside a small door with a large dark room behind, red glove touching his hand. It was as if he hadn't moved at all but he knew he had. He created his bases to have this area identical, just for 'Him'. The arm dropped, this area was darker than the last one as the inside couldn't be seen at all, the figure in there was completely hidden from sight. "Thank you." Robotnik told 'Him'. 'He' just walked back into the room, slight scuffling could be heard as 'He' went deeper inside the room.

Robotnik walked towards a couple of double doors that lead to the room and exited, taking one last glance at the room before the doors closed. Two robots stood guard outside the doors and were about to stop Robotnik from going past until they realised who he was. "Good day Robotnik!" They both exclaimed as Robotnik walked past. He just continued walking down the corridor. Trying to work out what had gone wrong.

"How could they have beaten the robots? They were all designed to be stronger than their organic counterparts." Robotnik spoke aloud to no one in particular. "Only one of three things could have happened. The long exposure to the Emeralds made them stronger, one of them betrayed me or the freedom fighters mysteriously timed there attack perfectly. Considering the damage done to the base it must have been the freedom fighters but how did they time it so well?" Robotnik finally came to the end of the long corridor.

Robotnik went through the double doors leading to a computer room almost identical to the other one. He sat down on his chair, it being the only difference between the two rooms. A random official looking robot came into the room. "We heard about the explosion at the base you were previously located at. I assume you're okay?" News travels fast.

"I am fine. Which is more than I can say for anyone at the base. The combination of robots to distract them while the base self destructs is a perfect defence mechanism when the base seems irreparable or is completely done for." Robotnik laughed to himself. Doubting the pesky hedgehogs had survived such a blast. Something special he had cooked up that produced a blast the strength of an atomic bomb but without the radiation in case he found a way to reclaim the territory. "I need to create more of those clones, but they take 5 years to grow to that age. Time isn't something I have." Robotnik looked frustrated. "At least I have a new series of robots I've been working on." He grinned evilly.

He pushed a few buttons on the keyboard, trying to search for any of the signals of his clones that were still active. He found one of the chips still responding. "Hoho! He truly is the strongest of those four. Now just to check where it is..." He pressed a few more button, the screen read off some co-ordinates. "That's odd, he's still at the base. Maybe he's unconscious. I doubt he would have stayed there if he wasn't." Robotnik pressed a few more buttons and connected to another base nearby the one he just lost. "Hello, this is Robotnik. I would like you to check base 1A. Thank you base 1C." He thought about his clever numbering system. Bases were numbered on the country they were in and lettered in order of being built within the country. He was in base 7E. Almost on the complete other side of the globe.

"Now then, I need to work on some programming to improve my robots efficiency." Robotnik cracked his fingers when he got to work, fingers moving so fast it was like they were one with the keyboard.

* * *

Rage appeared just outside of a large metal gate with a guard tower on either side and a wall surrounding the perimeter of a city, the wall being so big that it looked straight to the eye even though it was round, it was raining heavily and the area nearby was quite barren. Rage knew where this was. It was the only stationary freedom fighter base that Robotnik has been unable to take through force, the last remaining city. A split second later Shadow appeared next to him in a green flash. Still knelt from touching Sonic and Amy on the ground. "Seems they have a shield." Shadow said simply. Pointing at the force field that looked like it went straight up but was in fact a sphere that seemed to cover the city from atop the walls. It was black and impossible to see behind. Rage had to agree. He had never been able to teleport inside when Robotnik wasn't paying attention to him. He had always kept his Chaos abilities a secret from his 'master'.

Suddenly shouting was heard from atop one of the towers. "Oi. Who goes there!" Rage and Shadow looked at each other, then turned back round to the guard. "I've been instructed not to let anyone in, they could be a spy besides, gates are always closed during rain!"

"Well that's you fucked then." Shadow muttered to Rage. Rage glowered at him.

"Shut up dick." Rage muttered back. "We are just five weary Hedgehogs and one Fox looking for a for place to seek refuge from Eggman!" Rage shouted up at the guard.

The guard could be seen mumbling something, but Shadow's ears could pick it up. "Send someone down to check their eyes. Eggman's known to love red eyes in his subordinates." The other guard nodded in agreement, disappearing down ladder and out of view.

"Looks like you're the one who's fucked." Rage muttered back at Shadow. Shadow looked at Rage in shock that he had heard too, then annoyance.

"Shut up." He mumbled back just as the guard opened the lower door. The guard started walking up to the two, he was a purple Echidna with green eyes wearing a raincoat over some form of protective gear. The mud squelched beneath his feet as he approached them.

He looked at Rage's eyes and muttered "Green." Heading to towards Shadow he didn't look at his eyes but instead knelt and opened the eyelids of both Amy and Sonic. "Both green" He then looked up at Shadows eyes. "Hmm." He went back towards Rage and looked at Slayde's eyes "Blue, nice." The guard mumbled slightly louder. He then went over to Tails. The rain had washed off all the soot and black from the explosion now. "Oh god." The guard half shouted, shocked. "Steve!" He shouted up to his fellow guard slightly panicked.

"What Eric?!" The other guard called Steve replied. Shadow and Rage started wondering what was going on. Panicking inside slightly.

"They have Tails with them! He's badly injured! Quickly, open the gate!" Eric shouted up.

"Oh shit!" The guard on the top of the tower shouted. "Open the gates!" He shouted down to the other side. The large metal gates started to shift, a small gap appeared allowing them to see inside slightly. There was a magnificent city on the other side. As the gates opened further the city could only be described as 'spectacular' there was so much greenery round the edges and yet also so many magnificent buildings jutting high into the air a few miles away from the edges. There was a road leading up to the city. The city seemed to go on forever and the other side was impossible to see. Eric told them to follow him so they did. Shadow grabbed Amy and put her carefully over his shoulder in a caring way before carefully picking up Sonic to make sure his wound didn't re-open.

As soon as they made it past the gates with Eric leading them the gates started to close. Rage looked towards the left, seeing the small hut that seemed to be the control mechanism for the gate. It was strangely bright inside the walls and he noticed he was no longer getting wet, as he heard the gates come to a close he looked up at the sky to see a beautiful sun in the sky. It was the first time he had ever seen the sun and he looked at it in wonder. "Impressive isn't it?" Eric asked him. "Using the fake Chaos Emerald that Tails built we've been gifted with virtually limitless power. It has the same energy's as a Chaos Emerald but in reverse. Tails easily came up with an adapter and even made another fake Emerald by basing it off the first. Though that took him years without a real Emerald to absorb from." Eric said happily. Happy with his safe haven being so impenetrable. "It's a good thing that he created these walls and shield generator as a side project just in case Eggman was ever lucky."

"But how does that happen?" Rage pointed at the sun in the sky. Still fascinated with it.

"It's simply a by product of the shield. Thanks to the Chaos energy we can control the weather in any part of the city at any time. We can also create holes in it if we so wish. We do this to send out planes and jets on missions against Eggman. The wall and the gates are the only permanent spots that wont destroy anything electrical. The barrier is spherical and extends beneath the city too. Blocking underground attacks. And last but not least, the wall repels any and all Chaos attacks, and the barrier absorbs them, sending them into the electrical system of the city."

"Why are you telling us this so openly?" Shadow asked, finally deciding to speak up. "We could very well be spies!"

The guard paused for a moment. Then inhaled deeply before sighing. "Two reasons, this first is you brought Tails here. Why would you do that if Eggman wants him so badly? Secondly, because none of you are truly evil." He pointed at Sonic and Amy at the same time. "They have never been evil." He pointed at Rage. "You have been smothered in evil since your birth but never gave into it." He pointed at Slayde. "He has evil, but it is only anger and rage. His goodness swells above it and controls it. Making him more than worthy in my opinion and you." He finally pointed at Shadow. "You were born to be evil but became good due to your raising. You almost lost yourself to evil in grief, but you have never truly been evil, more so... Anti social."

"Hmpf." Shadow went, looking away from him and towards the city they were approaching. Eric smirked at him, his prediction perfect.

"How do you know all that?" Rage asked, completely gob smacked.

"I simply have a rare ability, even amongst the most powerful of Chaos users. I can read the goodness and the evil in people and their lives. I even on the rare occasion predict what someone will become, seeing what changes them. I have never been able to prevent it though, no matter how hard I've tried." He looked slightly disappointed in himself. Wishing he could have made a difference in at least one person's life. Rage's ears then picked up something that sounded somewhat like three vehicles. Looking up he could see two ambulance and a Jeep heading in their direction. Eric held up an odd device that slightly resembled a mobile phone. "I sent for two ambulances and a ride for the rest of us. I assume those two aren't suffering from anything? They don't seem injured." He pointed at Slayde and Amy.

"No, just exhaustion." Rage replied. Shadow still in an irritated mood about what Eric had said a few moments ago.

"Ah good." Eric said as the vehicles got to them. Paramedics shot out of the ambulance with two stretchers, one from each ambulance. "Those two." Said Eric, pointing at Sonic and Tails. The paramedics picking up Tails looked happy and surprised as Rage lowered him onto the stretcher. The two picking up Sonic didn't seem to recognise him at all, a lot can happen in five years I suppose, and just stood there silently as Shadow dropped Sonic onto the stretcher they were carrying. Each one rushing to their respective ambulances they took them inside and placed them down on a bit in the middle. Before quickly shutting the door and driving off at a fast pace down the road. "Shall we?" Eric indicated the Jeep that had a fair large back. Eric went in first, followed by Shadow carrying Amy, then by Rage carrying Slayde. Inside of the back of the Jeep was quite large, allowing six people in the back, three on each side. Eric had already sat on the left as Rage entered and Shadow was busy fastening the seatbelt of Amy as Rage sat down next to Eric, placing Slayde next to him and fastening Slayde's seatbelt. Rage then fastened his own as the Jeep started moving.

The Jeep moved at a slower pace than the ambulance, but still headed down the same road. Rage glanced outside the Jeep. Outside he could now see people on the green land before the main city. It looked like they were all working the land; 'Farming' as Rage had read about, all of his knowledge about the world further than a few months ago was all from books. The areas seemed to vary greatly, going from small forests to cornfields. The city under a shield had its very own ecosystem. No wonder Robotnik could do nothing to break in, there were virtually no ways in, they didn't even need to transport goods in. "Where are we headed?" Rage broke the minutes of silence with a simple question.

"Well that depends on you guys. You can head straight to the hospital, or we can go to a hotel where you may stay, free of charge. To wait for your friends as they recover." Eric answered. "I'm going to be your guide until you get to either, to make sure you're all okay."

Rage looked at Shadow. "Hotel?" Rage said simply. Shadow nodded, they needed a good rest. Sonic and especially Tails would probably not heal for a few days anyway. "Hotel." Rage confirmed, Eric nodded, undid his seatbelt and went to talk to the driver. They were now on the outskirts of the city and Rage could finally appreciate just how high these buildings were, he could barely see the tops. Even at his running speed of about 420 meters per second he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to overcome gravity and climb them. Which, by his estimation, would make them over nine kilometres tall. "Just how tall is this shield?" Muttered Rage in awe. Eric had just returned and, obviously hearing him, concentrated trying to remember something.

"About sixteen kilometres tall. The radius and diameter of the spherical shield is consistent throughout. Making the wall about 100 kilometres in circumference." Eric grinned, happy to show off his knowledge about the city. "About six kilometres from the wall to the city is dominated by greenery, forest, farms, etc. From that there's about three kilometres of Suburban area, before you get to the fully dense urban area of seven kilometres to the centre, with those four connected skyscrapers you see. You may not be able to see it but they are connected in a square about five kilometres up to allow for easy building change. Just imagine having to go from the top floor on one to the top floor of another! Within these walls we probably have at least half the population of Mobius, before we were attacked that is, so this city has about two billion people, though it could probably support twice as many. This city has thirty skyscrapers that are at least three kilometres tall, including those four that are nine naturally. Fifteen of them are residential including one of the four nine kilometre ones. The suburban area is completely residential and before the war started would have been classed as 'urban' but compared to the size of the inner city, this isn't very much. Most the skyscrapers have oxygen pumped into them due to how high they go, but thanks to the shield it does not get cold up there." Eric looked very pleased with himself.

"Wow." Rage whispered. Completely and utterly in awe by it all. Even Shadow looked impressed. "You managed this much in so little time under so much pressure. Incredible." Rage said slowly. Suddenly a groan was heard from the side of Rage as Slayde turned in his seat.

"Five more minutes." He mumbled to himself. The two hedgehogs that were awake started sniggering. Eric joined in. After the quiet laughter had stopped Eric spoke up again.

"Us Echidnas aren't as weak as humans. We can dig and place mighty foundation with our bare hands in days. Building support pillars isn't exactly hard either when you have a metal that is virtually indestructible and only shapes to those who know who to use their Chaos powers in a certain way. It's a metal Echidnas have been using for centuries; it's what the wall is made of. By using this metal we can create massive buildings that may never tumble down in all of time as we have yet to see the metal erode. It has been dubbed at "Chaosanium" by the residents of the city. We never gave it a name before but it seems suitable." Eric told them, green eyes glowing with thoughts. "Only Echidnas have ever managed to manipulate this metal. We would like it to stay that way."

Slayde suddenly sat up in his chair fully alert. "Wow that really was five minutes!" Rage exclaimed as everyone looked at Slayde oddly.

"Feels like someone's smashing my head with a mallet." Slayde muttered. Clutching his head and closing his eyes. "Ouch..."

"We're just entering the main part of the city guys. Expect it to be a slow drive, there are no roads in the main city area just massive paths and subways, the paths are normally only used as roads when the military is needed outside." The Jeep slowed down dramatically, coming to a practical crawl as it picked its way through the mass of citizens. All of them darting about on their daily business. "Welcome to the city where it's always day and there's always something going on..."

"Welcome to Aragot." Eric announced dramatically.


	4. 03 The City that Never Sleeps

_The City that Never Sleeps_

Rage stared outside in awe. Gazing at all of the people outside. He'd rarely ever seen people and seeing so many at once really was a new experience for him. Buildings were on every side and the path was as wide as a road with three lanes. The noise coming from outside was outstanding as everyone on the street talked to someone they were walking with. Upon closer inspection Rage realised that there were pedestrian lights telling the people to go or stop, much like car crossroads.

Rage could see all sorts of species in the streets; Foxes, Squirrels, Humans, Porcupines, Horses, Cows, Sheep, Rabbits, Goats and many more but surprisingly there were very few hedgehogs and Echidnas about. "If you're wondering why there are so few hedgehogs and Echidnas it's because most of them are in the army." Eric told Rage. "Echidnas are well known for their far higher than average strength and Hedgehogs are well known for their higher than average speed. It makes them good choice as both are handy in the military. Also Echidnas are well known for being the most one with Chaos and Hedgehogs immediately after them." It seemed like a good reason to Rage who nodded in acknowledgement. "The person in charge of the military is a guy called Knuckles, one of the strongest Echidnas, and personal friend of Tails!" Eric grinned at Rage.

"This place is incredible..." Rage said in awe. He had never really been in a city before. By the time he was 'born' all the cities had been destroyed, minus this one of course. Rage suddenly felt the ground beneath him shaking ever so slightly and, by concentrating turned his ears to the ground, he could hear a loud large metallic thing on rails moving beneath them. "What's that?" Rage asked pointing to the ground. Eric looked at him confused, this time it was Shadow who answered.

"It's a subway system, makes it easier for people to cover large distances within the city." Shadow was looking directly at Rage like he was a child that needed teaching everything. He then looked at Eric. "He's never been to a city before." Shadow explained. Not explaining why and playing that bit on the safe side.

"Ah." Eric breathed. Looking a lot less confused and now more understanding. "So how are you feeling?" Eric addressed Slayde with the question.

"I'm feeling fine, just a little tired, headaches cleared." Slayde said, looking at Eric. "Seems like an interesting place." Slayde gestured outside. Eric was just about to start speaking when Slayde said something else. "I heard you while I was resting, so you don't need to explain anything to me that you told them but I would like to know something." Eric looked expectantly. "How long until we get to the hotel?" Eric looked deflated.

"Probably about 5 minutes longer." Eric mumbled. Disappointed he wasn't sharing more of his knowledge to anyone. He quickly perked up. "The hotel we're taking you to is one that is normally reserved for the more wealthy of people. All because you brought our leader back to us!" Eric beamed at them, he seemed a very happy person. Everyone in the Jeep sat quietly waiting for the arrival at the hotel. All of them looked quite tired. Amy's head lolled over onto Shadow's shoulder and rested there as Shadow stared into space either unaware or unbothered. Slayde sat there twiddling his thumbs, staring at them deeply as if he was moving them with telepathy, and Rage just laid back, head in hands, with his eyes closed.

"We're here!" The driver shouted. Everyone looked up, Shadow quickly started undoing Amy's belt, Shadow picked up Amy bridal style and walked out the Jeep with her in his arms. Rage stood up and jumped out onto the floor and Slayde immediately followed also jumping out. Eric was the last to exit the Jeep and as soon as he had it drove away. Looking round they could see so many people going about on their daily business. People started to dart past the group as they were standing there, all the people headed some place or other.

"Okay! We need to get to that hotel over there!" Eric pointed at the nearest sky scraper that was round a kilometre tall. "Come on!" He shouted over the crowd, already on his way. Rage and Slayde immediately followed, whereas Shadow was having some trouble wading through the hordes of people at the same time as protecting Amy. Eric, Rage and Slayde made it to the hotel and looked back to see Shadow only about halfway to the hotel. "Hey! Hurry up!" Eric shouted. Shadow looked up for a second, then went back to dodging the crowds. Suddenly a Rabbit knocked Amy's head and made Shadow almost drop her as the Rabbit walked from behind Shadow. The Rabbit found himself on the floor with a foot in his back pinning him down.

"Watch where you're going you incompetent fool." Shadow spoke just enough to be heard over the crowd as they suddenly started backing away. Shadow glaring at them all as they stared at him. "What never seen a hedgehog before?" Shadow shouted at them all before walking towards the group again, crushing the Rabbit as he did. The Rabbit scurried away as Shadow walked towards the group calmly, the crowd still avoiding him as he headed to the group. He finally made it to the group and Rage spoke up.

"That was a little harsh you know. What did he even do?" Eric started to head in as Slayde and Shadow followed, Shadow ignoring Rage. Rage caught up to Shadow. "Well?"

"He knocked into me. No need to make a big deal out of it." Rage looked at Shadow and sweat dropped. Rage decided to just leave it instead of pointing out the Shadow was the one that made the big deal out of it. They made it inside the lobby and it was massive. Taking up almost the entire base of the skyscraper and two floors of it. There were multiple pillars there that were obviously made of the 'Chaosanium' that Eric mentioned earlier. There was a red carpet running from the door to the desk that was sat in the middle of the lobby. On the wall at far end of the lobby there were four elevators and on the left hand wall there were some rather grand looking stairs with black smooth silky carpeting. Eric continued towards the wooden mahogany desk. The desk had three computers on it, two Chickens operating two of them and, a Horse looked up to see Eric and the rest of the group approaching, Shadow bringing up there rear. She stopped typing on the PC and moved into the free area of the desk to see what they wanted.

"Hey, I have Tails' rescuers here. Looking for those two rooms that were booked for them." Eric turned his head to look back at the group again. "One of you will have to stay with Amy be-"

"I'll do it." Shadow blurted out not letting Eric even finish his sentence. Everyone gave him a weird look and Shadow looked slightly uncomfortable. "I don't want to go with him because I don't know him." Shadow pointed at Slayde. "And I hate him." Shadow pointed this time at Rage. "Seems a bit obvious who I would pick to stay with if you look at it properly." Shadow said calmly. Eric turned back to the receptionist apparently satisfied with the answer. Rage and Slayde carried on staring at Shadow. "You two are going the right way for a smack in the face." Rage and Slayde looked at each other, smirked and turned back to looking at Eric. Eric turned round with two card keys in his hand and handed each one to Rage and Slayde.

"Your room is 370-2. The last number is the room number and the first is the floor number. You're on the top floor with rooms! The rest above that is relaxation area." Rage and Slayde walked off together towards the elevator. "Your room is 150-2. Sorry I couldn't get you one any closer to your friends but they are fuller than normal." Shadow looked at Eric more pleased than annoyed as he took the two card keys off him. "One for each of you. So she can get in once she's up and about. There are 375 floors in this hotel this is counted as the first in the elevator but not for the room numbers, so press the next one up to get to your floor. Floor 372 is a spar, floor 373 is an arcade, floor 374 is the managers floor, so avoid there, and floor 375 is a swimming pool on the roof!" Eric explained to Shadow. Shadow nodded in thanks as he walked over to the elevators. Eric looked over to the other two guys heading for the elevators. "Hey, press one floor up to get to your room!" He shouted to them.

"Yeah, we heard you telling Shadow." They shouted back in unison. Eric looked mystified with no idea how they could have heard from so far away. He started to walk towards the door to head back to his post at the gate. Then he stopped and turned back round one last time.

"If any of you ever need me. Go ask at the gate for me! See you round!" Eric shouted to them all. Shadow nodded to him and Slayde and Rage stuck up their thumbs just before he turned round and departed through the door. They reached the elevators and Rage and Slayde went to different ones. Shadow then came up to yet another one carrying Amy.

"Hey Shadow, elevator race. Want to join in?" Slayde said to Shadow over Rage's head. Shadow just glared at Slayde before turning back to his elevator. "Oh yeah, you're on another floor. Too bad!" Shadow elevator arrived and he stepped into it, the doors closing behind him. "Bugger, should have picked that one." Slayde muttered to himself. Both Slayde and Rage stood there waiting for their respective elevators to arrive. Suddenly Slayde's elevators doors opened. "Haha!" Slayde stepped into the elevator and quickly pressed the button labelled '371' feeling the elevator move upwards he smiled. His thoughts turned to Shadow. '_At this rate he would have won the elevator race.'_ Slayde thought to himself. Listening to the calming music playing in the elevator as he watched the number slowly go up. After what seemed like hours the elevator finally read 371 and Slayde stepped out of double doors with Rage nowhere in sight down the corridor that split the floor into two halves.

Slayde walked down the corridor towards the doors that lead into the only two rooms on the floor. Looking at the two doors he noticed the one that said 370-2 and tried his card key on the slot next to it. A clicking noise could be heard as the small light next to the slot turned green. Slayde pushed the door open and pocketed the card key as he strolled in. "What took you so long!?" Rages voice greeted him. Slayde quickly looked round to see Rage grinning at him from a door to the left of him. He was now fully dressed in what must have been the hotels clothing. Black jeans and a plain black top.

"You ran up here didn't you?" Slayde questioned Rage. Rage shook his head with a solemn look on his face. "You're a terrible liar. I'm amazed that you managed to keep your Chaos abilities hidden from the doctor for so long!" Rage looked at Slayde confused.

"I never told you I did that." Rage said to Slayde. Slayde laughed heartily as he walked towards the large window that was positioned half a meter up and went all the way to the top of the ceiling.

"I doubt this place would still exist if you had." Slayde said half seriously half jokingly opening the window fully, as Rage chuckled, so that he could lean out and see down to the floor. "One heck of a view." Slayde said pointing out the window with his thumb. Rage chuckled again.

"So what do you want to do?" Rage questioned Slayde. Slayde climbed on top of the window ledge and had a better look of the drop. He turned round and looked at Rage while still standing on it.

"How about we take our now free bodies out for a spin?" Slayde said grinning as he let go of the edge of the window allowing himself to start falling backwards. Rage grinned.

"Fuck yeah!" Rage shouted as Slayde fell backwards out of the window. Rage immediately ran and jumped out the window himself head first.

* * *

Shadow stood in the elevator still holding Amy in his arms bridal style. The elevator was moving too slow for the ebony hedgehog and he started to feel uncomfortable and agitated just before it finally opened its doors. Shadow walked out as fast as he could without knocking Amy and noticed that the corridor split the floor into two different 'apartment' type rooms rather than the floor being covered in rooms. "Good. Less people to interrupt me."

Shadow stopped in front of the door labelled '150-2' and pulled out his card key. Carefully moving Amy into a single arm he slid the card key through the slot on the side. A click was heard as a green light came on. Shadow quickly pocketed his card key and put Amy into two arms again. Using his feet to open the door he entered in the room and found it to be very spacious. The room he entered was a living room with a sofa, a large TV in front of it and coffee table in the middle of the two things, and an eating table with two seats round it. He looked round for one of the bedrooms and found it walking inside noticed it had a double bed in and an en-suite bathroom connected to it.

He carefully laid Amy down on the left hand side of the bed and carefully brushed some of her quills out of her eyes. "Mmm. Sonic." Amy murmured rubbing her face against his hand. The onyx and crimson hedgehogs hand dropped, disheartened. Shadow walked out the room to search for the other bedroom but he could hear a noise growing louder. He looked out his window as he saw Slayde shoot by the window with his thumb up followed immediately by Rage. Shadow just rolled his eyes and searched for the other bedroom. After several minutes of looking concluded the idiots at the reception only gave them one room because they assumed Amy Rose and himself were a couple.

"As if that would ever happen." Shadow told himself angrily, seemingly enraged at the receptionist. Shadow threw himself onto the sofa and grabbed the TV remote off the table. Switching it on a report on Robotnik came on. It was showing scenes of a demolished wreck of area that used to be his base. Shadow chuckled to himself, seems they made the news. He decided TV wasn't really what he wanted to do. So he switched off the TV and laid back on the sofa, putting the remote on the coffee table in front of the sofa. Shadow knew he didn't need sleep, him being an ultimate life form and everything, but he knew it would speed up his energy recovery rate.

Suddenly Shadow realised he still hadn't put his restrictors back on and he was quite surprised he hadn't collapsed from over exertion without them on. Pulling them out his pockets he quickly put them back onto his wrists before falling into a deep slumber.

* * *

Slayde was falling through the air backwards with Rage only about ten meters about him. He could feel how far away the ground was. "Wooooooo!" Slayde was shouting the whole way down, yet as he was falling he saw Shadow standing in a window beneath, Slayde stuck his thumb out at Shadow as he past. Slayde grinned once he was out of sight of the window with the charcoal and ruby hedgehog in. Slayde could feel the ground rapidly coming towards him as he continued to scream "Woo!" He quickly did a back flip and landed perfectly on his feet, leaving a small mass of cracks in the pavement where he landed. Luckily the pedestrians had seen him coming and had moved out of the way of the free falling lunatics. Rage almost immediately landed, much more gracefully, next to Slayde and Slayde grinned at him before shooting off swerving in between the pedestrians like it was a game. Rage followed suit and started dodging in and out of the pedestrians, keeping up with Slayde.

Slayde stopped in a small area just off the road with very few people hanging nearby. Rage followed him in. "What we stopping for?" Rage questioned. Slayde grinned and looked quite impish.

"We're going to have a race." Slayde beamed at him. "Want to see just how fast this can move!" Slayde looked very pleased with himself for some reason, leaving Rage slightly confused.

"But where are we racing to? We don't know where anything is or where to go to get anywhere!" Rage said. Confused as to how a race could work if they knew where nothing was.

Slayde chuckled slightly. "One place we both definitely do know is the gate we came in." A look of dawning appeared on Rages face.

"Sounds like fun." Rage chuckled too. Rage was sure he could beat the imitation of a hedgehog with ease as he had speeds exceeding that of Sonic and Shadow at his disposal.

"Okay, so neither of us knows the way but, we both know the destination." Slayde confirmed. "Ready. Set. Go!"

Slayde shot off out of the area off the road and went left. Rage swiftly went left and ran forward without stopping. He knew that if he just kept going in the same direction that he would eventually come out of the city and that in turn would make it easier to find the gates. Rage rapidly swerved in and out of all of the people that were walking slowly. Dodging like a maniac between the thousands of people in the streets, he was like a blur, none of them could see him as he was moving too fast but they all felt the slight wind that was kicked up from his movement. Making them look side to side, confused.

Rage continued to dodge through the pedestrians as he ran towards the edge of the path. He swiftly ran up the building slightly and ran to the left so he was moving vertically on the wall this way there was no pedestrians in the way so he could go faster. Every time he felt himself starting to lose momentum and felt like he was going to fall off or there was a gap in between the buildings Rage did a triangle jump and jumped to the other side to continue his running. Rage rapidly made his way through the main part of the city this way and soon found himself in what Eric called the 'sub-urban area.'

Rage dropped to the ground to take in his surroundings, earning some funny looks before the people carried on with their daily business. This area too had a lot of people, though it was nowhere near as many as there were in the main area of the city. In the main city there were barely any gaps in the multitude of crowds, whereas here you could quite easily swerve in between the people without fear of hurting someone too much. The buildings weren't as high here, but they were still a good 500 meters at the smallest. This city truly was a place packed with people. Rage wouldn't be surprised that if there would have been a few more years before they came here that these building too would be like the ones in the centre and the ones in the centre even higher, on average anyway.

Rage crouched down in to starting position again. He'd just wasted some time that could have been crucial so he started off at a faster pace than he did last time. Swerving in between all of the pedestrians again and finding it far easier this time. He knew that it would be faster running from the edge of this area to the other as it was almost twice as small and just as he was thinking that, the buildings started to dramatically reduce, leaving some smaller 100 meter flats.

Rage made it to the end of the urban area and surveyed the area. From where he was standing he could see two different gates and wasn't quite sure which one was the one he came through. At least he was sure that he would be able to run at his true maximum speed over the rural area of the city as it was the less populated. There were very few houses nearby and the most he had to worry about running into were none sentient animals that were used for milk, eggs and other essential things like wool and meat. Rage couldn't decide which of the two gates he could visibly see to go to but then he noticed that one of the two gates had a more defined road to it than the other and decided that he'd go to the one with the more defined road as he remembered that the one he entered had a large well paved road.

Rage sprinted towards the gate that was in a north westerly direction to his current position. Breaking the sound barrier and leaving a sonic boom following him as he sped across to the gate. Rage passed straight through the middle of a herd of cows and made all the cows start panicking because of the loud noise of the sonic boom. Rage was approaching the gate at a ferocious speed and when he got about half a kilometre away he started to slow down. Bringing his speed down rapidly and suddenly stopping in front of the gate two seconds and a half later. Rage knocked on the door of the small hut to the left of the gate that controlled whether the gate opened or closed. A brown ferret came out. "Is Eric here?" Rage asked.

The ferret spoke with a strong Scottish accent. "Sorry mate he ain't. He be up at t' n'thern gate." The ferret pointed in a direction that was luckily not in the way Rage had just come from. Rage was thankful he didn't waste his time coming here instead of going to the other gate that was in his view. Rage thanked the ferret as he went back into the hut and sped off again heading towards the gate that the ferret had pointed out. Preying that Slayde had not managed to beat him to the gate in his delays.

As Rage sped towards the gate at full speed he passed through one of the forest areas to find it raining inside it. "I am definitely not coming inside here again." He thought to himself. He was forced to slow down slightly as he went through the forest and decided he would simply go outside of the forest and find a route outside it. Quickly backtracking he managed to get out of it and turned to the left to run nearby it. It took him a good 2 seconds to get to the edge of the forest as he moved nearby to go alongside it. The forest ran next to the wall, but the bit near the wall wasn't very populated with trees. He managed to get passed the forest in once piece still and ran at the gate at full speed again.

Pulling an extremely sharp stop just in front of the hut near the gate Rage casually walked up to the hut. Slayde was nowhere in sight so he knew that he had won. Rage knocked on the door and it opened to reveal a bright pink female Echidna that was half way through laughing at some sort of joke. "Hey." Rage started to say. The Echidna looked at him with a smirk still on his face "Is Eric here?" Rage finished.

"Nah he's not here yet." The female Echidna spoke with a very entrancing feminine voice. Rage looked as if he expected that answer. "Your friend says 'What took you so long?' though." Rage looked at the Echidna with a blank look on his face, and then Slayde could be seen standing behind the pink Echidna laughing.

"Hello Rage." Slayde said smiling at him. Rages face turned from blank to irritated as he looked at the black and blue hedgehog.

"How on earth did you beat me here?" Rage asked in an angry voice. Slayde just laughed at him.

"Come on in and join me and Lynda for a drink." Rage looked up at the Echidna called Lynda who opened the door enough to let him in. Rage walked in slowly and followed Slayde to a table that was in the middle of the hut. "Beer?" Slayde asked Rage. Rage nodded at him in agreement as Slayde slid an open Budweiser across the table to him. "They got loads in that fridge." Slayde stated, pointing at the fridge. "It's like a bottomless pit in there!" Slayde grinned as Lynda came and sat next to him. There were six chairs at the sides of the table.

"You still haven't answered me?" Rage asked more calmly now. Slayde took a swig of his beer.

"Well you see. While you was blundering about through the people on the ground heading in whatever random direction that took your fancy, I climbed up one of the nearest skyscrapers and got a good view of the area. From being able to see three different gates at once I could easily tell which one it was. So I jumped from building to building and ran the rest of the way at a leisurely pace. Besides. Every Mobian has a strong sense of direction. Oh wait, I guess you don't!" Slayde laughed at Rage as Rage just glared at him. "Also you're so slow you may as well be a snail!"

"Yeah right. I bet if we had a straight equal race that I would beat you easily!" Rage answered back. He was clearly bothered by Slayde's comment on his speed.

"Shame we shall never find out really. Isn't it?" Slayde commented, taking another swing of his beer.

"Why not? We have a perfect area to race here. We could do it now!" Rage shouted out. Standing up swiftly.

"Sit down Rage. I know you like to prove yourself but I'm just not in the mood for racing at the moment." Slayde smirked at him. Suddenly the sound of a car engine and tires on a road could be heard in the distance. Rage walked up to the door, frustrated, to see how close the vehicle was and whether Eric was inside or not. Slayde followed Rage and went out the door with him. They saw that there was another Jeep heading towards them on the dusty road.

"Ah, here he is." Lynda announced to them both after following them both outside to see where they went to. They stood just outside the door waiting patiently for the Jeep to arrive. As soon as it got about ten meters away it stopped and Eric hopped out.

"Thanks for the ride!" Eric called to the Jeep driver, who immediately started turning about to drive off. He then looked up to see Slayde and Rage waiting for him, both of them grinning. "Bloody hell! How did you get here so fast!" Slayde just laughed at his reaction whereas Rage walked up to Eric and stood next to him ready to walk to the hut with him.

"We ran." Rage said to him simply. Eric was gob smacked, out of all the people in the city the fastest only went slightly faster than their fastest car. Which drove at about 125 miles per hour. A bit over a quarter of Rage's speed.

"That's insane." Eric stated. Simply staring at them. "Who's the fastest in your group? Can you all run fast like that?" Rage went to speak and answer that he was but Slayde beat him to talking.

"We're not sure who the fastest is. To be honest we never really raced to find out who it is. As for all of our speeds we can, well except Amy, all run faster than the speed of sound." Slayde winked at Eric. Who just stood there amazed. They had jet planes that broke the sound barrier but only barely and yet these hedgehogs could run at least as fast!

"That's pretty damn incredible. Completely insane. I think I need a beer." Eric then noticed Lynda looking into her eyes he turned away quickly and blushed slightly. They walked inside and sat round the table as Eric grabbed himself a beer. He then sat with the rest of them. "What's on the TV Lynda?" Eric addressed her from across the table; pointing at a television that Slayde and rage had not noticed. Lynda looked up at Eric before replying.

"There was this special on. Something to do with odd things happening about Eggman. One of his bases blew up out of the blue this morning! They couldn't seem to find any explanation as to why it did. They were still searching when I turned it off. It's probably still on." Lynda replied to Eric. Eric looked amazed, it was the first time one of Eggman's bases had been destroyed for over a year. Slayde and Rage started laughing, they got weird looks from both Echidnas. Rage spoke through his laughter.

"Should I tell them or you?" Rage asked Slayde. Slayde was laughing too much to reply so he just pointed at Rage. "That was us!" Rage went back to laughing. The Echidnas looked at them in disbelief. Rage had finally stopped laughing at the confusion of the freedom fighters. "Well to be more precise it was him." Rage pointed at Slayde who stuck his thumb up as he did. "And it was an accident. We didn't mean to do it at all! Things just sort of got out of hand when Sonic almost died."

"Sonic? You mean the Sonic? The one that went missing five years ago and Tails never stops going on about?!" Eric looked at them in disbelief again. Amazed that such a hero had passed right under his nose and he didn't even notice. This time it was Slayde who spoke.

"Yes, the very same. We're sort of half friends of him. Well. I say that but he and Rage haven't been properly introduced yet." Eric looked at them. Unsure whether to believe everything that they were saying or not. Eric took a swig of his beer and Slayde followed suit. Eric then looked oddly at Rage.

"You know. Eggman has a robot called something Rage. I wonder if he based it off you." Eric said to him. Rage just grinned at Eric as Slayde rolled his eyes at Rage. Eric laughed. "Anyone up for a game of cards?" Rage, Slayde and Lynda all nodded. "Okay got a pack here." He pulled out a rather battered looking set of playing cards. "What do you want to play? Poker, 21, blackjack..."

* * *

Amy awoke with a start. Dragging herself out of the nightmare she was having. She shut her eyes and laid back down, thinking about the horrific dream. Sonic was dying in front of her but because she was so weak she couldn't do anything to help him. She couldn't stop Robotnik herself and save him from his gruesome fate. She breathed heavily and shallowly, like she had just been running a marathon and had only just finished the ten mile race. She opened her eyes again and looked at the ceiling.

"Where am I?" Amy whispered, she sat up again. More calm now but still a little worried. She could see there was an en-suite to the left of the room and to the right were some large windows covering almost the whole wall. In front of the bed was a door that was half open, Amy peered through and saw it leaded to a living room. Half getting off her bed so that her feet could touch the ground she took a look round. The room was a pale blue colour with a patterned wallpaper print. There was a large wardrobe and a set of drawers to the left of the door that lead to the living room and both were a dark brown wood.

Amy decided to take a stroll outside of the room to see what was in the living room and so she pushed open the door fully. She could see a large television on the other side of the room and a sofa in the middle. There was a small kitchen going off with a fridge, an oven and a few cupboards. She then noticed something black sticking up over the sofa and, being extremely cautious, approached the sofa slowly.

Amy peered over the edge of the sofa and saw that it was only Shadow there. Amy let out a sigh of relief. At least she was with someone she knew, wherever this place was. Looking at the hedgehog again she realised just how sweet and innocent he looked while he slept. It was like all of the pain and suffering he had gone through had just melted away and left him there as a normal, quiet, handsome hedgehog. Amy shook the thoughts from her head. The reality was that Shadow was a very pained misunderstood soul and he enjoyed being alone. She needed to remember that.

Amy noticed that a single strand of her pink fur had come off and made its way onto Shadows face. Amy blushed slightly at the fact that some of her fur had come off and it landing on someone made it far worse. It was awfully close to his nose so if he breathed to heavily he might end up inhaling it. Amy decided she best move it and, slowly and carefully, moved her hand towards the sleeping hedgehogs face to try and remove the item that was foreign to his face. She got within a few centimetres when suddenly an arm whipped up and a hand grasped her hand, preventing her from moving her arm any further, which made Amy gasp loudly as she was not expecting it. A pair of black eyelids shifted and revealed two red eyes which momentarily surveyed her before quickly letting go of her hand.

"Rose. You're awake." Shadow stated. Sitting up and moving over in case she wanted to sit on part of the sofa. Amy took the moving as an invitation and took a seat on the other side. The two hedgehogs were quite close as the sofa was only designed for two people. "How are you feeling?" Shadow asked Amy, finally looking at her with his piercing eyes.

"I'm feeling okay. Thanks Shadow." A slight bit of confusion came off in her voice as she was not expecting Shadow to care for her well being. She supposed he may have just been asked by someone to look after her. "How are you feeling?" She responded. Deciding that if the black and crimson hedgehog was showing interest in her well being she best at least show some back.

"I'm feeling much better after that nap. Feels like I've been sleeping forever though. I wonder what time it is." Shadow stated, looking about for some form of clock in the room. He apparently didn't see one as he turned back to the TV slightly dejected. Amy watched Shadow as he pondered the time but it was impossible to tell unless they were outside. "Well it'd be impossible to tell from the sun as it's artificial so I guess they must have a time somewhere." Amy looked confused. Just where were they if they had an artificial sun? Another world?

"Why don't you try looking to see if it's on the TV?" Amy suggested. Shadow looked at Amy quite surprised. "Even I come up with great ideas you know." Amy said stubbornly after noticing how Shadow was looking at her. Shadow stopped looking at her and turned to the coffee table and grabbed the remote off it. Turning the TV on.

"I was looking at you like that because I was surprised I didn't think of it. Not because I think you're stupid Rose." Shadow coolly said as the television powered up. Amy looked slightly embarrassed that she had jumped to conclusions so quickly. The television finally powered on and the news popped up. Try to what Amy said there was indeed a time displayed at the left hand side of the screen. It displayed '1:32 HT' Shadow assumed it was a 24 hour clock and that 'HT' stood for something to do with the city. Like 'Home Time' or something to that effect. It was obvious there were multiple bases in other places of the world so there may be a chance that it is broadcast outside the city too. The person reading out the news on the television was an older male giraffe.

"And now onto the more pressing matters. Eggman is believed to be building up some form of army to march upon somewhere. Now we are not completely sure where this army is going to be attacking, nor how long it is going to take for him to build up. We are currently redoubling our strengths and trying to sort out any weaknesses in case the army is a plan for us. The army is currently over one hundred million in size and rising. We doubt he shall carry on building it up for much longer and that it will strike where ever it is targeted for within a few weeks. Our own army should be enough to crush it easily and we are glad to say that if the army does march on us that when it is destroyed it will leave a large opening on Eggman's base allowing us to create a massive counter strike. Now for the weather..." Shadow turned off the television. He had no interest in the weather system of this place. He had lived out and coped in every form of it.

"So what do you want to do?" Shadow asked looking at Amy's face, his voice still sounded his usual way but he seemed to have the slightest trace of kindness in there that was peeking through. Amy was taken aback again. She didn't expect Shadow to offer to do anything with her.

"Erm. Well I could cook something up? I know you don't have to eat and everything but it has to be nice to have something sometimes right?" Amy answered with her own question, the usually dark hedgehog was showing her some other side of him which she found highly odd but she thought she may as well do something nice for Shadow to try and build up some form of friendship so he didn't feel quite so alone.

"That would be lovely Rose." Shadows face had the usual same stern look on it, but inside his eyes he looked like he was smiling.

"I'll make you something that'll surprise you then. So no looking into the kitchen! I don't even know what's in there yet so it'll be a surprise to me until I look." Amy said smiling at Shadow. Shadow realised that maybe, just maybe he'd finally found a friend after Maria. He wondered if Maria had guided him to her and her to him as Amy was so alike to the blonde human Shadow used to think of as a sister. Shadow noticed Amy had entered the kitchen and turned the television back on as he gently whispered three words to himself.

"Thank you Maria."


	5. 04 A Day of Relaxation

_A Day of Relaxation_

Shadows nose twitched as he was watching the TV. The lovely smell of molten cheese filled his nostrils as he battled the urge to turn about to see what Amy was cooking. He wasn't really watching the TV but the noise did serve as a good background to his thoughts. He had forgiven himself for all that had occurred in his past, but contrary to popular belief he hadn't thrown it away. He still thought about the little snippets he could remember, Maria's face, Gerald's face. Some bits of him training aboard the ark. Despite having found out his past though, he felt like something was missing, a small thing wasn't quite right but he didn't know what it was.

Suddenly he heard clattering as Amy placed the food on top on the table for two that was nearby behind him. Shadow stood up and turned about. He saw that there was a pepperoni pizza on the table and he walked over and pulled out one of the chairs and stood there waiting for Amy to sit. "Oh thank you Shadow. You're such a gentleman." Shadow sat on the other chair and got his fingers ready for digging into his half of the greasy cheesy pizza. Even though he normally liked eating healthily, it was better for his inner Chaos after all, he thought he'd allow himself this treat.

After several minutes of silence, except the sound of chewing, both he and Amy finished eating. It wasn't very often that Shadow had a meal but that was lovely. "So why did you come into the room with me?" Amy asked out of the blue.

"Because I wanted to. The real reason being that I know you and I have some form of trust in you." Amy looked shocked. Shadow? Trust? That was sort of odd.

"Glad to hear it Shadow but why?" Amy questioned the secretive hedgehog.

"Because without you I would have let myself die and I would never have found out my past. So for that I suppose I owe you some gratitude." Shadow said, a sliver of compassion in that deep voice of his. Amy smiled at him, she liked being appreciated. No matter how hard she tried towards Sonic he never returned any appreciation. She still liked him but it was not the crazy out of control fancy it used to be, it was more of an adult attraction. Thought even that was starting to fade considering how long she hadn't seen him for.

"So what do you want to do now then?" Amy asked Shadow sweetly. Shadow looked pensive for a few moments. Then thought of something.

"Want to try out the facilities that are upstairs?" Shadow suggested. Amy's eyes lit up.

"Yeah! I've always wanted to go in a steam room in a spar! Grab some trunks out of the drawer and get changed in the bathroom. I'll get changed in the bedroom!" Amy excitedly spoke, like a school child receiving a large amount of candy. Shadow groaned and instantly regretted his suggestion but he sighed and shrugged it off when Amy gave him a, cute, hurt look. He walked into the bedroom and grabbed some swim shorts. As Shadow walked into the bathroom he saw Amy pull a black bikini out the drawer. He sighed again and got changed into his swim shorts. At least they'd be going swimming after which was what Shadow was hoping for.

"Can I come through yet?" Shadow asked. He heard Amy shout yes through the door so he walked inside. Upon seeing Amy his jaw almost dropped. The bikini was one of the most skimpy things he had ever seen showing just about the most possible. He had never seen a girl so indisposed before as he could see the shapes of her breasts perfectly, the top part of the bikini was strapless. Amy did a twirl about and Shadow saw how tight the bikini looked on her bum. Emphasising her hips too with small bows on either side. If Shadow hadn't heard of them before he would have thought that it was illegal.

"So what do you think? Too skimpy? Look nice?" Amy questioned Shadow who was staring at her in the eyes. His face normally so cool and collective gave away an ever so slight gob smacked impression.

"It's very nice Rose." Shadow finally managed to answer, almost slurring slightly with his speech. '_Damn hormones_.' Shadow thought. "Shall we?" He asked, sticking out his arm to bestow a towel for Amy to take. His other hand filled with another towel for himself.

"We shall!" Amy shouted out excitedly rushing towards the door. Shadow was simply wondering what he had let himself in for as he followed behind.

* * *

Eric dealt out 2 cards to Lynda, then Rage, then Slayde and finally himself. Turning one of his over to reveal a nine. "Hit" Mutters Lynda. "Bust!" She puts down her cards a queen, a two and a king. Eric moves his gaze over to Rage.

"Hit." He says confidently. He takes a look at the card he is given. "Hit." He takes it and smirks. "Hit." Eric hands him another card and he looked at it smirking evilly. "Stand."

Eric then turns over to Slayde. "Stand." Eric turns over his hidden card to reveal a four. He turns over another card to reveal an eight. Giving him twenty one. Eric smirked and looked up at Rage. Rage smirked.

"21, five card trick." Rage announced laying the cards on the table. He had two two's two three's and an ace. Rage looked rather pleased with himself. Slayde laughed softly when Eric turned to him and laid his cards down on the table. Ace of spades and king of spades. Slayde smiled at the enraged Rage.

"Well I sure am glad we weren't playing for money or I'd have just thrown away my life savings playing with you two." Slayde found his statement quite amusing. Whereas Rage just glares at the back of Slayde's head. Eric looked up at the small clock that was in the room. "Ah crap. My shift starts in ten. It's at 2:00 HT" Eric announced, grabbing his cards and putting them together. Rage and Slayde look at Eric with mild confusion. "We work on a 24 hour based clock and HT stands for 'Home Time' which is the time zone the city is in. People further out a field will tune into the stations that are broadcast here if they have enough time." Eric had his usual 'pleased to be explaining stuff' face on. "Though if you look in enough places, you'll see that, most the residents have kept their home time intact and do not pay much attention to HT. It's good because it allows for more diverse times for jobs etc."

"That's pretty interesting." Slayde commented. Eric exited the door and they followed, all of them saying bye to Lynda.

"Well I get off at 8:00 HT and then sleep in between before going back again at 12:00 HT. Luckily Echidnas don't need much sleep!" He looked proud of himself. "I finish again at 18:00 HT so either of you are welcome to come find me and we can spend some time in the city together." Eric started walking towards the main gates. Which slowly opened slightly.

"Okay shall do!" Rage exclaimed. Eric suddenly turned back and handed to them some rings.

"If you want to do much you'll need money. Here's 50 rings. Go use it at the casinos and gather up some more with your mad skills if you want. Or just spend it on whatever. I don't mind!" Eric started walking towards the gate again, then called something back while he was walking. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention. You've probably noticed by now but Chaos Control is unusable in the city, the radiation from the artificial sun prevents it." Eric made it through the gates and they started to close. Rage and Slayde could see it was raining on the other side. "Bye guys!" Eric shouted to them. They both waved as the last bits of the gate shut, blocking him from view.

"So what do you want to do now?" Rage asked Slayde. Slayde turned to look at him and surveyed him carefully.

"We may as well go to the casino and see how much was can get!" Slayde replied to Rages question. Rage nodded. They both ran off going at a fair speed, they weren't racing so refrained from using their top speed. They made it to the edge of the suburbs and could see the that the crowds of people slowly got thicker and thicker the further in it went. Slayde stopped and Rage stopped just after him to see what was going on.

"What's up?" Rage asked. Slayde looked at him intensely.

"I think that we should building hop." Slayde told him. Immediately leaping up onto the smallest building and gradually jumping towards the middle of the city while going higher and higher. Rage just shrugged and followed in suit. After a few minutes of building hopping, they made it into the centre of the city. They stopped on one of the large 1.5 kilometre buildings. Looking down into the crowd of people a large sign displaying 'Casino Royal' was easily seen on the opposite building to the one that they were on. "Going down!" Slayde said as he jumped off the edge of the building, Rage in direct pursuit. They both landed perfect in front of the casino and dust off their clothes before walking through the door, a fair few people staring at them as they did so.

The second they walked through the casino doors they appreciated how large it was. The base room was larger than the reception and appeared to have multiple stair ways. They looked across and saw too many card tables to count, some playing 21, some playing poker. A woman sitting at the reception waved them over. They walked towards her slowly, still taking in all the surroundings.

"Are you here to visit, buy or play?" The receptionist asked. Slayde and Rage noticed it was a rather attractive rabbit sitting behind the counter. Slayde and Rage just looked at her in confusion. "First time here?" They both nodded simultaneously. "Ah, well the first fifteen floors are covered in multiple gaming areas to allow for plenty of room to allow for more customers. The rest of our floors offer a two floor residential area to people of the most wealthy class. If you happen to know someone who does own one of the rooms upstairs, you may ask for its location so that you can visit them." The receptionist smiled at them, apparently satisfied with her own explanation. "I gather as it's your first time here you shall be wanting chips?"

"Ah. Yes we would. We would both like a 50 rings chip each." Slayde said politely. Suddenly grasping Rages 50 rings while he wasn't paying attention and handing over the total 100.

"You're joking right. No one has ever come here with less than 1000 rings before. Even those people rarely win in the time it takes them to build up something. The only successful people at the casino have asked for 50000 rings minimum!" The receptionist looked at them. Thinking they were just trying to mess her about.

"I think we'll take our chances." Slayde pushed the money forward again. The receptionist just shrugged and handed over the 50 ring chips.

"Your money I guess." She said as she gave them one 50 chip each. "Have fun with your one game. Though I would suggest trying the slots. That's about the only one you'll be able to play on! The higher you get in the building, the higher the stakes shall be. The slot machines on this level are on the left hand side of the room. Good luck."

They both go towards the slots as suggested, Slayde and Rage both going to opposite ends of the slots. The slot machines all had three wheels and a button that allowed you to stop each one individually. It was a typical simple slot machine. Slayde placed his 50 chip into the machine and the machine instantly came up with 'Credit: 50' a little sign by the sign said '1 spin = 2 credits.' Slayde cracked his fingers and started up the reels. The reels started spinning at an incredible rate. Faster than any machine he'd seen before. He guessed it was to stop the faster Mobians being able to see them move. Slayde focused and put himself into the kind of concentration he has while running, the reels looked like they were getting slower and slower until they were moving at a pace no faster than a snail to him. He carefully waited for the seven to come round on the first one and pressed the button. The slot stopped on the seven. He repeated this for the next two reels until his machine read out 777.

The glory theme sounded on the machine played as his credit was upped by 250 giving him a total of 298. Slayde was going to enjoy this.

A few hours later...

Slayde's sitting on the fifteenth floor playing poker with the big shots. There are two kings, two aces and a ten in the community. There are four people in play and the stakes are 1,000,000 each. The first person, a wealthy looking male Echidna places down two tens, a ten of hearts and ten of spades. "Full house." He announces, smiling.

Next, an esteemed and sexy looking Tigress put down the two black kings. "Four of a kind." She said smugly, confident in herself.

Then a wealthy looking playboy Lion placed down two aces, the ace of spades and ace of clubs. "Four of a kind, aces." He told the room. The other two looked gob smacked. They felt for sure they were going to win when it was their turn. The Lion looked expectantly at Slayde, expecting himself to win.

Slayde smiled and put down the queen and jack of diamonds. "Royal Flush." He told the group merrily, organising the cards so they could see he had won. All of the wealthy millionaires threw down their cards in disgust as Slayde scraped over all of his winnings. Slayde smiled at them all. "That's five million all for me. And to think I was bankrupt this morning!" Slayde smiled at them all kindly as he picked up all his chips in a bag. They simply all glared at him. "I think I'll be on my way now. Nice to meet you all!" Slayde made his way downstairs and arrived at the bottom floor. Looking across he noticed Rage still down here. Rage looked up and nodded to Slayde as Rage was sitting on one of the chairs waiting, he made it obvious he'd catch up as he had a small whisky in his hand. Slayde arrived at the entrance and put his bag on the front desk.

"Oh hello!" The receptionist said in surprise. Slayde indicated his winnings and she slowly counted through it all. "My god! Five million?! That's incredible!" The receptionist started handing over 1,000 ring boxes amongst others. She totalled it in front of Slayde so he could see. One hundred and fifty five 10,000's, five hundred 5,000's, five hundred 1,000's, five hundred 500's, five hundred 200's, five hundred 100's, five hundred 50's, five hundred 20's and finally fifteen hundred 10's.

Slayde gabbed it all and opened up the trench coat the he was wearing and just so happened to buy with some of the poker chips. He found the shop on the third floor. Putting each different type of ring box in a different pocket and thanking the fact that the boxes had been somehow refined into a thin slice of paper from like a note he left one of the many 10,000's out and handed it over to the receptionist. "Treat yourself to something for me." He smiled at he and she beamed back at him. The casino paid her about a quarter of that annually and as homes were so cheap compared to what they used to be, though equally pay was dramatically less, she knew she would finally be able to buy a good home for her child, her being an only parent.

"Thank you so much for your generosity Mr. Hedgehog." The receptionist said in glee to him just before he managed to leave. He waved to her and spoke.

"No need to be so formal. Name's Slayde, what's money for someone like me anyway?" Slayde walked back over to the receptionist. He spoke in an infatuating smooth and kind tone. "Here. Have some more." He gave five more of his 10,000's over to the receptionist, who put them in her pocket as she started crying in happiness thanks to the generosity of the hedgehog standing right before her eyes. She had never known anyone to be such a nice person. The receptionist stood up and left her post behind the window and came through the door on the side of the booth. She ran up to him placed her arms round him. Crying into his chest.

"Thank you so much. You've made my life." The Rabbit sobbed into Slayde's fur. She looked up at him and tried to hold back her sobs of happiness. "If you ever need me, for company, a friend. Anything! My name is Eleanor Raina. Come and find me. I won't tell you my address as I live with my parents but with one of these ten thousands I'm getting a home for me and my baby!" She started sobbing into Slayde's fur again, Slayde put his right arm round her shoulders and stroked the back of her head gently with the left.

"I shall make sure I take up that offer." Slayde said compassionately to her while looking her in the eyes. Eleanor blushed slightly. Suddenly two armed security guards came round the corner. Eleanor looked up at them slightly confused but then thought about what had happened. With the money she had just gained she would never have to work again. The interest alone off the 50,000 she'd have in the bank would be enough for food and water for the rest of her life if she played it correctly.

"I'm quitting my job, I have no further use for it. Could you tell Derrick?" Eleanor addressed the security guards in a sweet voice. They were both Echidnas, one was red and the other was blue. The red Echidna pulled out his gun and pointed it at Eleanor. She looked petrified. Her life had finally took a turn for the better and all of her dreams have come true, now they were going to shatter in one single gunshot leaving her poor child parentless. The Echidna pulled the trigger and released the bullet right towards her, her eyes closing as it came near her, too fast for her to duck or do anything.

She heard the gunshot while her eyes were closed waiting for the excruciating pain before the inevitable end. It didn't come. She slowly opened her eyes to see Slayde closed fist, in front of her face, emanating a slight white/yellow aura. Eleanor looked up at Slayde who was heavily glaring at the guard responsible. His breathing was heavy and his eyes glowed with passionate hatred.

"Eleanor." Slayde said as she looked up to his head, he didn't look away from the guards. "Run." Eleanor quickly turned round and ran away as fast as she could. The guard raised his gun again. Slayde growled at him. He shot it straight at the running female as she exited the door. Slayde caught it in his other hand, once again appearing in front of the bullets path. Eleanor made it out of the door as the door slammed behind her.

"Never go near her." The guards looked at him oddly. Then they both laughed at him.

"And what are you going to do to stop us?" The one that shot blurted out, attempting to hold down his laughter. Slayde held out his hands so that they could see, dropping the bullets right in front of them, he showed he had caught them. They both had a hint of worry in their face as they came to a stop with their laughter. "Our boss says that you're to be took down for cheating and getting away with it. He also mentioned to take out anyone who was helping you."

"Really? Well tell your boss this. If he does _anything_, as much as lays a finger on her or hires anyone for the same thing. I shall hunt both the person who did it down and your boss down and personally cause them more pain than anything that they've had in their worst nightmares." Slayde spoke in a sinister creepy voice that bestowed a chill upon the spines of everyone in the area. The Echidna with his gun out just shook it off. He immediately started firing at Slayde who just simply dodged the bullets as if they were hand thrown stones. The Echidna eventually ran out of ammo and exclaimed very loudly.

"Ah shit!" As Slayde just walked up to him calmly. The guard who hadn't done anything start backing away as Slayde approached them both. The Echidna with the gun was desperately attempting to reload. He just managed to reload and pointed it upwards to shoot Slayde. Slayde quickly grabbed the gun, pointed it up and emptied the clip into the ceiling.

"Anything."

Slayde whispered it quietly in the body guards ear. The guards quickly backed away then ran up the stairs. Rage looked at Slayde oddly and Slayde shrugged. "You sure are one weird guy you know." Slayde laughed.

"Says you. None of us know your real name and I know why." Slayde said looking at him as they walked out. Rage gave him an incredibly odd look and seemed slightly freaked out as he let the door close behind him, making their way into the busy street.

"Worked it out already huh? Fair enough. Just don't tell anyone. I'll tell them when they're ready." Rage asked Slayde nicely. Slayde looked at Rage and gave him a thumbs up. Smiling as he did it. "Shall we head back then?" Slayde nodded as they waded their way through the masses of people.

* * *

In a white thick foggy room sat Shadow and Amy. They were in a steam room because Amy wanted to sweat off some pounds, Shadow rolled his eyes within his mind at the mere thought, as if she had anything to burn off. Shadow was sitting there with his arms crossed, frown upon his face, thoroughly regretting his decision to spend time with Amy. Amy on the other hand had a massive grin upon her muzzle. She was really happy that Shadow wanted to spend time with her because no guys ever did. She sat in the steam room with glee, Shadow to her left. Suddenly Amy spoke.

"Want to go to the pool?" She looked round at him as he quickly changed his frown into a smile so that she wouldn't notice the annoyed look on his face.

"Yes sure Rose. That would be lovely." Shadow answered, looking into her eyes as she looked at him and smiled. He tried his best not to look miserable and managed to keep his usual unreadable face on. They both got up and head outside the steam room, grabbing their towels out of a small cupboard to the left of the door to the steam room. They both headed towards the elevators on the end of the hallway. There wasn't much on this floor, just a large steam room on the side they came from and a room with multiple Jacuzzis on the other. Shadow pressed the button for the elevator as Amy stood there waiting next to him. She decided to talk again and break the silence.

"So what do you think about the earlier news report? Think that they'll march upon the city soon?" Amy asked him. Shadow looked round at her as the door opened and paused to think as Amy walked into the open elevator.

"I think that if the Doctor plans on attacking here, they won't know when until it hits. He's good at keeping that sort of thing hidden. Or at least he was when I knew him." Shadow replied to Amy as he walked onto the elevators floor. Amy then pressed the button for the top floor. The doors closed slowly as Amy spoke again.

"Think that the army could be really massive? What if it gets in here? Think of all the poor people." Amy said, looking concerned at what she had just talked of.

"It is likely that this army would be enough to rival with the population within these walls, although I doubt the Doctor would even know how much it is, so it'll probably be far less. Although it would most likely rival the army force they have here." Shadow looked at Amy who was looking at the closed doors, thinking. The doors opened up to a bright sun kissed scene. Unlike at the steam room this room had a fair few people, the majority being teenagers or wealthy looking young adults, but there were no children. The people on the roof constituted more of women than of men. The pool was massive, covering most of the roof, it was about half a meter off the ground, presumably to make it deeper, it had pale blue tiling the whole way round and there were plenty of sun bathing loungers round the edge.

Shadow looked to his left to see Amy had disappeared, quickly looking round he spotted her near two empty loungers that were a fair bit away from the others. Shadow smirked, thinking that Amy must have considered his hate of large numbers of people. As Shadow approached her Amy opened her mouth to talk. She spoke too gently for a normal person to hear but luckily Shadow wasn't a normal person. "Want to go and swim?" Shadow's eyes alight with amusement. This was one of the few things he could do that faker never would dare. Shadow threw his towel onto the lounger perfectly and walked off towards the pool as Amy smiled at his back. She was enjoying herself for once.

Amy watched Shadow as he climbed up onto the side of the swimming pool and she immediately followed him up. As soon as she got up she looked round and saw Shadow was already at the diving board. "He sure does move fast" Thought Amy. Shadow jumped on the diving board pretty high and went soaring down, entering the water perfectly and barely causing a ripple. Shadow remerged further up the pool and started swimming a perfect front crawl. Amy admired him for a few minutes before she snapped out of her trance and jumped in herself. The water was lovely and warm and she loved the way she felt in it. Her fur and body felt weightless.

Amy swam up and down the pool, she used breaststroke to manoeuvre her way back and forth the length of the pool. The pool must have been about 50 meters long and the same wide. The smallest depth of the pool was about a meter at one corner and at all the other corners was about two and a half meters deep. After several minutes of swimming up and down she finally looked over to see what Shadow was doing. Amy saw that he is also still swimming lengths, but was moving at a far faster pace, the same pace he was going at to start with. Amy looked up to the side of the pool to see a fair few girls staring at him, ages varying from eighteen to twenty seven. Seemed he caught a fair bit of attention. As he was swimming he saw Amy looking at him and waved to follow him, he then continued to the shallow end of the pool. Amy instinctively followed Shadow and Shadow ended up standing at the shallow end. Shadow spoke as Amy approached.

"Those girls keep staring at me." Shadow pointed at the largest group of them. "It's really quite annoying." Amy looked over at all of the girls, quite amazed at just how many of them were staring. She couldn't really think of a way of stopping them.

"I don't really know what I could do. Sorry Shadow." Amy looked sympathetic. Shadow just glared at the girls as they started to wave at him.

"Surely you know something to make at least a few of them stop?" Shadow questioned exasperatedly. It was true, Amy did know of a way that would make a few of them, if not a fair few of them stop. People in general stopped eyeing people up if it looked like that person was with someone already. Amy took a deep breath and hooked her arm round Shadow's slightly, placing her hand in his she grasped his hand in hers. Shadow instinctively grasped back. "Think this will work?" Shadow asked, Amy nodded and pulled their hands up slightly so that everyone watching could see, but without making it look like they were just doing it for the sake of it. True to her word, a fair few of the girls turned away and stopped looking. "There's still a bunch of them staring." Shadow whispered without looking round. His peripheral vision picking them all up without any problem. Shadow turned to look at Amy who had suddenly leant in closer, Shadow was not expecting it and suddenly found Amy kissing him. Without noticing he closed his eyes and felt his cheeks burn slightly, but before he knew it Amy pulled away. Despite the fact that he knew it was just to stop the girls from staring he could not help but feel disappointment as she pulled away, much to his surprise.

"They stopped now?" Amy asked him quietly as she continued to look at him, a slight tinge of red on her own muzzle. They had all stopped but a few who were being as discrete as they could, yet now they were also glaring at Amy. Shadow nodded.

"Thank you Rose." Shadow said, relaxing slightly. He was still able to feel the slight blush on his cheeks, yet he knew his black fur was likely hiding it.

"Why don't we go and sunbath!" Amy said to Shadow extremely merrily. Shadow looked gone out. He didn't see a point in lazing round in the sun for hours to get a 'tan' that was something he couldn't get anyway due to his black fur. Shadow was about to decline but then looked over to one of the girls that was looking at him discretely and realised they'd likely start staring again if he was not with Rose.

"Fine. I'll sunbath with you." Shadow announced. Amy looked like she was about to bounce out of the pool. Shadow started pulling Amy along with the hand he had to the side of the pool. He quickly pulled himself out with just the one hand and them picked Amy up out of the pool by taking her other hand. Picking Amy up bridal style he jumped down to the floor and placed her back on her feet. Amy held her hand out for holding again and Shadow took it without question. They walked over to the loungers with their towels on and they both laid down gently, careful not to let go of each other's hands until they were both fully laying down. Amy immediately turned onto her side so she could face Shadow. Amy then noticed just how well defined Shadow muscles were, but his fur usually hid it she didn't normally see it, because he was wet from the pool she could see how muscular he really was. Amy thought that there was no wonder that those girls were staring at him and that she was glad she didn't notice earlier. Amy then remembered what she was about to say.

"This whole thing is terrible Shadow. We've been gone for five years and Eggman's pretty much took over the world!" Amy said to Shadow panicked. Some of the largeness of what was happening hitting her in the face.

"Don't worry Rose. We'll find a way to do something. Faker shall come up with something and I'll be able to help." Shadow said in a comforting way. Turning to her and placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah. I guess it'll be fine." Amy whispered. Both disbelievement and for some reason disappointment in her tone. Shadow looked up over Amy's head.

"Oh fucking hell. No!" Shadow exclaimed looking towards the entrance. Amy started to turn to look to see who was there.

* * *

"I can't believe they had amour piercing bullets!" Slayde stated loudly to Rage as they waited for the hotel elevator.

"Yes Slayde, you've said that three times now." Rage said slightly irritated and slightly bemused at the same time. The elevator doors opened and both hedgehogs stepped inside. "I'm simply surprised that they would go to such methods towards someone who had been tipped. But I suppose they see it as dirty money. Still _shooting_ their employee?" Rage stressed the word shooting as much as he possibly could while Slayde pressed the appropriate button on the elevator wall.

"I know, it's just terrible." Slayde announced. They stood in silence for the remainder of the elevator journey and exited once the doors opened on their floor. They both make their way to the room and Slayde opens the door. Rage immediately followed him inside. Slayde makes his way directly to the kitchen whereas Rage flung himself onto the sofa, sending the remote that was on the other end flying into the air but he caught it perfectly. Rage pressed the standby button to switch it off standby.

"Hey I'm cooking some steak. I'm guessing you don't want any?" Slayde popped out of the kitchen and addressed Rage with the question.

"I'd rather not thanks." Rage said, staring at the television that was talking about the destroyed base. They had located a small chip and were investigating it. "Looks like they found my old locator chip." Slayde who had already gone back in the kitchen stuck his back out.

"Eh?" Slayde questioned. Look of confusion on his face. His head looking very funny just hovering there.

"The old locator chip I took out my arm! Oh wait you was asleep." Rage replied. Almost laughing at Slayde's comical face. Slayde headed back in the kitchen.

"Yeah I remember you taking that out. Also I wasn't asleep." Slayde announced from the other room loud enough for Rage to hear.

"Mmhmm." Rage hummed back, watching the television with interest as the Mobian team continued to look round the destroyed base. Soon the smell of cooking beef could be smelt within the living room. A few minutes later Slayde walked out with a large plate containing a large steak and a lot of chips. Rage looked up as he went past then went back to the television. Slayde came and sat next to Rage instead of sitting at the table and proceeded to eat.

"Well this appears to be a locator chip of some kind. I guess it belonged to a more important robot of Eggman's and it got caught up in the blast of the base. We're still searching for why the base blew up, but it seems that the base had sustained heavy damage before exploding. This leads us to believe it was some sort of defence mechanism..." Rage turned back from the television to see that Slayde had already eaten.

"Wow, that was fast. I'm off to go check out what these facilities look like. Want to come?" Rage questioned Slayde.

"Well I'd rather not. I think I'm going to stay in for a bit longer." Slayde replied. "Got things to do." Slayde stood up and took his plate into the kitchen.

"Okay, suit yourself. I'll see you later!" Rage walked out of the door and headed towards the elevator. '_Bet he's off to sleep_.' Rage thought as he entered the elevator. It hadn't moved from earlier so it opened up straight away. Rage decided he'll go to the top first, so he pressed the button for the pool floor. Several minutes later Rage made it to the top of the building and looked across to see Shadow and Amy starting to lay down while holding hands. Rage smirked and leaned against the wall of the elevator door frame. Rage could see that they were clearly taking about something and saw Shadow placing his hand on Amy's shoulder. Then he looked up and finally saw him. A look of great displeasure lit up his features.

Rage heads directly towards them as Amy looks round to see him. She smiles at him and waves gently. "Don't wave at him. He doesn't need waving at." Shadow told Amy. Rage glared at Shadow and Shadow simply glared back. Tension could be felt in the air between the two as a few nearby people looked over and moved further away.

"So yeah. Saw that you two were holding hands. You two into each other now then?" Rage asked teasingly to Shadow. Shadow simply kept up his glare at Rage and ignored him. Amy started to go red. "Haha. I thought Sonic was the only one for you Amy, I'll have to tell him that you're betraying him!" Amy's redness stayed as she shouted at Rage, standing up.

"He is the only one for me! He's going to realise just how amazing I am and we'll get married!" Amy shouted at Rage as she clicked her fingers to bring out her piko piko hammer. As she was running after Rage over the rooftop she realised just how little she herself believed those words. She didn't really like Sonic anywhere near as much as she used to. Truth be told she saw him a lot more as a best friend than anything else now. The only problem is Sonic was the only guy she had ever chased, so every guy was disinterested in her because they all thought of her as a fan girl.

Rage continued to laugh and ended up running into the pool while he was trying to get away. Amy managed to deliver a heavy blow to his head and goes back to where Shadow is laying. Shadow noticed that Rage wasn't coming out. Shadow quickly jumped up onto the edge of the pool and noticed Rage was in there unconscious. Shadow's hidden heroic instincts suddenly kicked in and he jumped in to save Rage. Pulling him out of the edge and carrying him in a fireman lift drops him to the ground in front of the loungers, startling him into waking up.

"You saved me?" Rage asks Shadow looking at him. Shadow nodded at him. "Thanks." Rage expressed to Shadow. "I'm going to go and check on Tails and Sonic. See you two some other time." Amy looked up at Rage again despite being irritated at him for bringing up her own doubts. Rage started walking away much to Shadow's pleasure.

"Hey, could you tell me how they're doing if we see you later?" Amy asked him before he left. Rage stuck his thumb up Sonic style at Amy and she had an odd flash of him being Sonic.

Rage headed through the open elevator door as an Echidna came out of it. He waved towards the two as the doors close.

"Finally. The dick's left." Shadow stated. Amy looked at him sternly.

"Come on Shadow. He isn't that bad." Amy says in her usual cheery optimistic attitude. Shadow frowns to himself.

"Maybe. He might not be that bad." Shadow half mumbled.

"What do you think Eggman thinks when he kills so many people?" Amy asked Shadow out of the blue. Staring into space with a blank look on her face.

"Probably just about how violently he can do it. Some people just have no conscious at all." Shadow replied in a serious and deeply troubled way. He knew he used to be like that.

"It's disgusting." Amy sat up and walked up towards the edge of the roof. Shadow stood up and followed. Amy peered over the edge of the meter tall fence to see a massively long drop. Looking round the city looked quite nice while it was bathed in the sunlight. Shadow looked over with her, her hand found its way to Shadow's and latched on. Shadow hand clasped back.

"Are they looking again?" Shadow asked, peering over his shoulder. Seeing nothing he looked at Amy slightly confused.

"No, I just wanted to." Amy smiled at Shadow in a kind way and then continued to look over the edge. "Just wanted someone to share the moment with." Shadow muzzle gave away a slight smile for a split second before sinking back to his normal unreadable expression. Both hedgehogs just stared into the distance for a few short moments. As Shadow peers over the edge he notices a large building with a clock on it that was barely readable to anyone who wasn't standing right next to the building. Shadow's keen eyes could pick it up though. The display read 8:12 HT. Shadow turned to Amy in surprise.

"It's 8:12 already!" Shadow exclaimed to her. Amy let go of his hand and looked at him full on.

"Wow. That's quite a long time since we last saw the clock!" Amy stated in surprise. Shadow nodded his head. "I was starting to get bored of being up here. Let's go back downstairs."

"Okay, after you." Shadow said to Amy. He himself was getting bored with being up there. They both passed the recliners and picked up their towels and started to head towards the elevator door. Shadow looked to the side and immediately looked back forwards. "They're looking again." Amy wordlessly puts her free hand in Shadow's who grasps the hand as they continue to walk across the roof. When they get to the elevator door Shadow presses the button while keeping hold of Amy's hand. A few seconds later the doors opened to allowed them inside. They immediately walked in and Amy pressed the button with her other hand. As soon as the door close Shadow let go of her hand. "Thank you for that Rose. It was much appreciated. Maybe I should have you round me more often." It wasn't much but it was the closest thing Amy had been given to a compliment from Shadow.

"Haha. Yeah maybe you should." Amy replied to him. Amy smiled to herself. The dark hedgehog wasn't anywhere near as horrible as everyone used to make him out to be. She quite enjoyed his company if she was honest to herself.

They both stood in the elevator, silent, for a while before it made it to the floor they were looking for. Amy stepped off first and Shadow immediately followed. The elevator doors closed behind them as they walked down the hallway to their room. Amy opened up the door and gestured Shadow in Shadow walked in with a thanks and Amy immediately follows, closing their door behind her. "So who's showering first?" Amy asked Shadow. Shadow looked at her confused. "You know what one is right?"

"I have heard the term yes. I have never used one nor seen one in action." Shadow replied to Amy's question.

"Don't you have one at your home?" Amy asked Shadow. Shadow looked as if he was close to laughing but he managed to keep his usual cool demeanour.

"I've never owned a home. Even on ARK I used a bath." Shadow told her. Amy looked surprised from his mention of ARK. He normally kept quiet to everyone who asked him about it. Shadow took her surprise the wrong way. "I do groom myself you know. I wash in clean streams and waterfalls. Anything I can find nearby where I settle, if I settle." Amy smiled at him, his confusion over her look was understandable.

"Of course you do. Whenever I've seen you you've always been well groomed. I remember at prison island your fur was softer than Sonic's ever was." Amy told him. "Well I'll show you how it works." Amy walked into the bathroom and gestured Shadow to follow her. Shadow immediately went inside the room. There were dark green tiles covering the room and pale cream tiles on the floor. A large shower was in one of the corners and a toilet was on the far wall. The sink was near the door. Amy walked up to the shower and fiddled with some knobs and buttons. "Luckily it's an electronic one. So I can set it up and all you have to do is press that button." She pointed to a button with the words 'on/off' underneath it.

"Okay, thank you Amy. You can go first with this showering thing." Shadow said. He walked out of the door and closed it. Standing on the side of the door. Some soft noises were heard by Shadow, presumably the bikini she was wearing, and the sound of running water soon followed. Shadow stood there waiting while Amy showered. He could hear various noises including some he couldn't quite place. The majority were the sound of different bottles opening but after all of that had been done there was just the sound of foam hitting the plastic floor and water hitting soft flesh. A slight squelching noise could be heard that Shadow had never heard before. He could hear her breathing elevate as the gentle squelching noise continued getting slightly faster in sound. He could hear a slight moaning sound from the other side just before the odd noise stopped and a few moments later the water stopped and he heard her getting out the shower. A minutes later the door opened, Amy was just in a towel and she noticed that Shadow was standing just next to the door. She went red as she walked past.

"The small bottles are full of soaps. Make sure your use them." She called back as he closed the door leading to the room behind him. Once the door was closed she called in. "Don't come back through for at least a few minutes. I'll be putting some lunch together in a couple minutes and I'll make you some." Shadow looked round the bathroom again. There was a towel that had been left for him nearby the shower and the bottles had been left in shelves in the shower.

"Okay. Thank you Rose." Shadow called out of the bathroom so Amy could hear him. He walked up to the shower and his nose picked up on the smell of something he hadn't smelt before. He knew it wasn't the cleaning agents as it was a completely different smell to those emanating out of the bottle. Shadow quickly gave up on trying to work out where the smell was coming from and stepped into the shower. Pressing the on button warm water ran out of the shower head, coating Shadow's body in a nice warm film of liquid. Shadow grabbed the nearest shower gel bottle and got to work.

Meanwhile outside Amy had finished putting on some underwear. Matching red bra and panties. She looked in the drawers for some trousers and located some black jeans. She quickly pulled them on and looked for a top. Inside the top drawer there were a lot of tops but most of them weren't her style. She then noticed a black top. She pulled it out and it had a cartoon green dinosaur painted on it eating a cartoon car. There was a little speech bubble that said 'Rawr!' Amy thought it looked quite different so she put it on.

Amy then left the bed room, passing the bathroom door and hearing running water she continued to the kitchen to whip up some food. She entered the kitchen and stuck her head in the fridge. Amy noticed some bacon on the top shelf and grabbed it. Pulling a frying pan out of the third cupboard she tried she poured a small amount of oil in it and switched on the hob to warm up the oil. As soon as the oil was ready she placed 4 rashers in and searched for some bread while they were sizzling.

As Amy finds the bread and places it upon the table Shadow walks out the room wearing some combat print jeans and a pain black t-shirt. "Think this looks okay?" Shadow questioned her. Amy looked at him and smiled.

"It looks fine." Amy continued to prepare the food as she tried to take two plates out of a cupboard located above the oven that she could barely reach. Shadow quickly came over and used his hover shoes to give himself a boost, allowing himself to grab the plates off the self with ease and passed them to Amy. "Thanks Shadow! What would I do without you hey?" Amy joked to him. Shadow just let off one of his rare amused grins as he went back into the room to wait for the food to be prepared.

Mere moments later Amy came through into the room carrying two plates of bacon sandwiches. Both had been smothered in ketchup within the shells of bread. She placed one down in each place and sat down as Shadow stood up to come towards the table. "Looks nice." Shadow complimented Amy. Amy smiled at him. "Smells better!" Amy laughed at the way he put it. Shadow sat down and started to dig into the sandwich, within seconds it was gone. Amy had only took tow bites out of hers.

"You should eat more often you know. Even if you don't have to you seem to like it." Amy told Shadow in a motherly way. Shadow just rolled his eyes, his eyes giving away the happiness his face never betrayed. Shadow looked up at her.

"Maybe I should. I know how to cook very little though, so it seems I shall be visiting you more often for your delectable pieces of food." Shadow said to Amy, complimenting her again. Amy giggled slightly.

"I've only cooked you a couple of things Shadow. You might not like my normal cooking!" Amy told him. He looked slightly disappointed then straightened himself up.

"All the more reason to try it." He said to her. Amy smiled back at him. Shadow could be sweet when he wanted to be. Amy then remembered something that she had been considering the whole time since she awoke earlier.

"Can you teach me how to use Chaos powers?" Amy asked Shadow. Shadow paused and looked up to her shocked. He could see that she was not joking. "Also I'd like to learn how to fight in general, like hand to hand combat? Would you please be able to teach me?" Shadow stared at her and analysed her. She had never really struck Shadow as that kind of person before but he could really see potential in her, especially after seeing her heal some rather serious wounds. Truth be told he had wanted to take on some sort of apprentice and teach someone his skills. As much as he loved being alone it was starting to drag on a little bit and he sometimes felt the need for company. Usually he wouldn't approach someone to ask them if they would be interested though as he never had managed to get close enough to someone.

"I think I could probably help you with that. All of it. Though I must warn you, if you wanted to be taught by me it won't be all sunshine and daisies. It's nothing like anything you'll have done before." Amy looked at him with a keen attitude and nodded at him. "Also going down this path could end up making your life very complicated. I have a lot of enemies and I mean a lot. Many want me dead and they would not hesitate to do the same for you. You will not be able to see your friends anywhere near as much either. Once all this is over, anyway" Amy's face wavered slightly. She looked like she was struggling to take it all in. Eventually she nodded.

"I think I can cope. I'll do my best at being your disciple!" Amy looked very pleased at the fact that she would now have someone to be teaching her. In Amy's opinion the fact it was Shadow, a hedgehog who was so adept at the things she wanted to learn about, made it all the better. Amy thought _'He's not bad looking either. Wait what am I thinking?'_

"Okay. So Chaos theory. Now in order to get in touch with the deepest of Chaos energies you must try and connect yourself with nature more. We'll do more on that when we're out of this city. Now before you go to bed every night you should hold your hands like this..." Shadow put his hands together in a sort of spherical shape with all of his fingers touching and thumbs on the opposite side of the hand sphere. "And concentrate your energies into it to create a small ball of energy." Shadow closed his eyes for a second and breathed deeply. A large ball of energy filling about three quarters of his hand space appeared. The ball was a pale yellow colour and sparkled with life energy. "Someone on the ARK taught me how to do this. Though I can't seem to remember whom. You should be able to do this. Depending on strength of your energies will dictate it's colour. The more powerful you are the paler it shall be. Although there are some special circumstances. If you're too consumed by a particular emotion it can cause it to become one unchanging colour. The typical example being black if you're evil. Which is unattainable through normal means."

"So what colour will mine be?" Amy asked Shadow. Looking up at him. Shadow indicated her hands so she did what he had done and arranged her hands in that specific way. Amy closed her eyes and concentrated hard. Shadow voice came through her thoughts.

"Don't force it, just let it come." Shadow said kindly. She relaxed and suddenly felt a slight tugging towards her hands. She opened her eyes to see a light purple sphere, it was about half the amount of her hand space. Amy got excited and the ball got snuffed out. Amy looked up disappointed. "That's quite good. Especially for a beginner. It goes blue purple red pink orange yellow white. The level changes when the ball reaches the maximum space in your hand and it reverts to a smaller ball. There are ten levels on each colour and the strength of one shade to another is about ten times more. This means that the jump from one colour to another, e.g. stage one blue to stage one purple, is about one hundred times stronger. Judging by the shade you're showing me there I'd say you're about a stage seven purple. I'm currently a stage two yellow, so I've made it up one level since you first met me." Shadow looked over to Amy to check that she was getting all of what he was saying.

"So if someone with a stage seven purple like myself fought someone who was a stage two yellow like yourself, you'd be almost a million times stronger than me?" Amy looked slightly scared as well as amazed.

"That is essentially correct Amy, however, in smaller gaps of energy like a stage five red against a stage six red the five could win. Techniques and physical abilities can make a difference. For example; anyone with Chaos energies about the level of red can run as fast as Sonic or I but as we seem to have been gifted these abilities naturally we don't have to think about them to use them. Whereas people without the natural ability would have to train to use them. As far as I know there has been no known limit to the amount of Chaos energy you can train yourself to. Of course most people die before they reach any stage higher than orange unless they work especially hard or have had help from someone who has already surpassed them. There have been very few documented white levels and none have made it past level one white. So it's unknown if white is the peak or if there's something after it.

"From documentation I have read. There have been few that made it up to the yellow mark. I have found a few record of possibilities of going into a super form independent of Chaos Emeralds once the person has reached level five yellow. There was also a single documented case of someone attaining a hyper form in stage one of white. The only person who almost made it to level two. They had some of his DNA at GUN last I heard. Though I think they destroyed it a week or two before we got trapped, or was it stolen..."

"It's pretty incredible you know so much Shadow! I guess you've read up a lot on GUN documentation?" Amy asked. Shadow nodded to her. "Wow." Shadow looked up at her amazed face. Everything she just told him seemed second nature to him now.

"Okay. I think we should go to the gym or some kind of fighting club and see what I can teach you." Shadow announced standing up. Amy stood up as he walked out of the door and popped on her shoes to follow him. They walked down to the end of the corridor swiftly. Shadow now seemed quite happy he had a good reason for being in the city. Shadow pressed the button and waited for the elevator with Amy beside him. The second the doors opened he pounced inside and Amy swiftly followed her way in. Shadow pressed the ground floor button. Amy suddenly spoke.

"Shouldn't we get changed into something that's better for fighting?" Amy asked, looking down at her jeans. Shadow smirked slightly and rolled his eyes.

"I know that typical clubs will do that, but do you really think that if someone attacked you on the street that you could ask for time to change into better gear? You wouldn't. It's simply best to learn how to fight in normal clothing." Shadow told her. It seemed like a good point to Amy. They stood in silence for the rest of the elevator journey.

"God being in the elevator is boring!" Amy said as soon as the doors opened. Shadow grunted in agreement, staring off towards the entrance of the hotel. Amy looked over to see Slayde leaning against one of the columns holding up the building. He waved as they both looked at him. Amy waved back and Shadow just stayed silent as they approached him.

"Hey guys, where you headed?" Slayde asked as they got near. Shadow looked like he was about to talk but Amy spoke up in a cheery voice.

"We're off to a fighting club!" Amy looked extraordinarily pleased with herself. Slayde smiled at her.

"Got any money to get in anywhere?" Shadow paused and then realised Slayde had a good point as Amy stared at Shadow expectantly.

"Not any at all actually." Shadow stated. Slayde laughed a short haughty laugh. He stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out a bundle of notes. Obviously a lot of ring money.

"Well then it's your lucky day. Here's 500 rings each." He held out two 500 ring notes.

"Ah." Shadow said as they both took their respective note.

"Thank you Slayde!" Amy said happily. Slayde smiled back at her.

"You're welcome Amy. Have a nice time together!" Slayde looked at both of them and then turned to walk towards the elevator. He waved over his shoulder before disappearing into the elevator and out of view. Amy stared at where he left for a few moments then looked to her side to see where Shadow was and saw him talking to a receptionist. Shadow walked back after a small conversation

"Come on." Shadow said in an instructive tone. Amy turned round and walked out the doors with him. "I've found out where somewhere we can go. It has a couple of training rooms at it and an underground fighting club attached to it where you can bet on things. I think it'll be a good place to rain and test you." Shadow looked at all of the hordes of people walking round. In one swift movement he picked up Amy bridal style. "I think this'll be faster." Amy nodded to him and put her arms round his neck before Shadow ran and jumped between the buildings to get to his destination.

* * *

Rage looked up at one of the four 9 KM skyscrapers. It had a large green cross on it and was obviously the hospital for the city. Walking inside he finds that the reception is very small and he can see various people darting round the place for many different reasons. Rage walks up to the reception desk and addresses someone sitting on the computer. "Hey, I'm here to see Sonic and Tails." Rage told the receptionist.

"Okay if you could just take a seat." She said pressing a button on the side without looking up. Rage goes and sits down on the nearest seat and twiddles his thumbs while waiting. After about ten minutes someone comes into the reception and talks to the receptionist who points at Rage. The person approaches Rage.

"Hey, hear you're here to see Sonic and Tails?" The Wolf said. Rage nodded at him. "Come this way then" The Wolf waved him in the direction of the corridor, there were many other corridors coming off the corridor and each one had many rooms. Most seemed full by the way the doors were closed. They eventually made it into the middle of the complex and were greeted by four elevators in a square. Each one was at least four times larger than a conventional elevator. The elevator door opened and a few doctors rushed out as they walked in with one other doctor. The person with Rage pressed the needed button on the elevator and they shot up. The doors occasionally opening and closing to allow more people on or off. After 3 minutes they reached the floor that they needed. "This way." The wolf stated. Walking down one of the four long corridors coming off the elevators. He took the second left and then the first right to come to an area with two rooms on either side and a window on the end. "Sonic is in the one next to the window on the left. Tails is this one." He pointed at the closer door to the right.

Rage went into Sonic's room to find him laying peacefully on the bed. The male nurse that brought him up came in behind him. Rage notices a clock next to Sonic that reads 10:00 HT. It switches a minute as he's looking at it. Rage is amazed how much of the day had gone already. He walks up to Sonic's bed and places his left hand on his forehead. "How's he doing?" Rage asked.

"He's doing well! But we doubt he'll be up for a few more days regrettably. And that will only be for simple things." The nurse told him. Rage looks at Sonic as if he's disappointed.

"Can we go to Tails' room now please?" Rage asked the man. The nurse turned out of the door and Rage followed. They headed almost straight across the hall and inter one of the rooms opposite. Tails was laying there fully conscious.

"Oh hello! Are you one of the people who helped save me?" Tails asked. Rage looked at Tails keenly. He looked a lot different than when he was injured.

"I am. I was the one who located you in the rubble of the base." Rage said to Tails, sitting down on a chair by the bedside. Tails indicated the nurse to go outside and he did so.

"So was you one of the ones that was stuck inside the room with the others?" Tails asked Rage. Rage shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

"No. I joined the rest of the group a little later." Rage replied. Tails noticed he was on an awkward subject. So Tails decided to change it.

"Been anywhere in the city yet? There's a lot to do." Tails asked Rage. Rage looked a little brighter after the question.

"Yeah, went to the casino with 50 rings that a guy at the door, Eric, gave us. Managed to win about two thousand. My mate won about five million with the same start point." Tails looked amazed at that statement. "I know. It's a proper impressive amount of money. Wish it was me winning it!" They both chuckled slightly. Suddenly a red Echidna came in.

"Oh. Hello Knuckles." Tails said looking at the Echidna. He looked exhausted as if he had ran to this floor rather than took the elevator. He was wearing a military uniform adored with many badges, he looked like he was important. "This is the head of the military, Knuckles." Knuckles looked quite stern. The nurse walked back in the room.

"Tails I need to speak with you immediately." Rage didn't move as Knuckles glared at him. "Privately." He said bluntly as he looked at Rage.

"Well it was nice talking to you. I hope to see you again." Tails addressed Rage and smiled at him. The nurse came and took Rage out the second the nurse closed the door Rage couldn't hear inside, it was like it was soundproof. The nurse took him back to the elevator.

"Anyone else you want to see?" The nurse asked while waiting for the elevator. Rage shook his head. "Okay." The elevator arrived and they went down with people coming on and off at random like last time. When the elevator finally reached the bottom floor. The nurse simply left Rage to find his own way out. Rage headed back out of the reception to see the receptionist still hooked on the computer. He stepped outside of the door and decided on a leisurely walk home. Then to go to the arcade with his hard earned betting.

He was on his last ring on a game called "Long Walk of the Dead" Where you was living on a planet covered in zombies. He managed to get to the final level and was facing off with the final boss. He carried on shooting it perfectly in the head as it attacked him. Dodging randomly he managed to avoid the beast and finally kill it. A score sheet came up and he had managed to bag first place. The game only allowed three letters so he put 'RGE' as his name. Smiling to himself he heads back for the elevators.

After getting into the room he found Slayde watching the television. They were still exploring the base that had blown up. "Anything interesting happened?" Rage questioned as he sat down next to Slayde.

"Not really to be honest. Though it seems that some robots came along looking for your locator chip." Slayde laughed at this and Rage joined in with the laughter.

"So what you been doing while I've been out?" Rage asked.

"Well I stayed here for a while. Then waiting in the reception to see if I could catch Shadow and Amy. Then I went off to find Eleanor and spent most my time with her. I ran back here and got back about ten minutes ago." Slayde Replied. Rage laughed and winked at him suggestively, then suddenly turned serious and stiffened up.

"Hey what time is it?" Rage asked standing up. Slayde peered at the clock on the television.

"17:34 HT." Slayde replied. Rage looked surprised.

"It's almost time to go and meet Eric! Do you want to come?" Rage asked Slayde. Slayde turned round and looked at him. Then paused as if thinking.

"I don't think I shall. I'd rather stay here thanks." Slayde replied turning back to the television. Rage looked quite surprised at his response but then realised he doesn't actually know him very well.

"Okay suit yourself!" Rage said, heading out the door.

"Hey Rage!" Rage turned round to find himself catching a note of rings. "Give that to Eric for me." Rage looked at the note and saw it was a 100 ring note.

"Shall do! See ya!" Rage turned out the door and let it close behind him. Walking up to the window on the opposite end of the hallway to the elevators he jumped straight out. "This is fucking awesome!" Rage shouted as he fell. As he was falling he altered his path so that he was right next to the building. When he was mere meters away from the ground he kicked off the edge of the building and soared in the air across to the building on the other side. By triangle jumping and running on the buildings he managed to worm his way out of the city quickly. Going in the correct direction this time. When he got the rural area he simply jogged to the edge. About twenty minutes after he left the hotel he had arrived at the gates to be greeted by Lynda.

"Hello Rage. Eric's shift doesn't finish for another five minutes." Lynda said as he got close. "I'd suggest just wait here." Rage nodded at her as she headed back inside. It was like she expected him to be there. Rage sits down with his back to the gate and stares at the roof, amazed at the sun still. A few minutes after watching the sky, the gates are heard opening in the background, Eric came through a gap in the gates quite breathless as the gates started to shut again, barely opening in the first place. Once the gates had closed Rage turned round to look at his friend. Who looked worn out.

"Hey you okay?" Rage asked Eric. Eric then notices him and suddenly perks up again.

"You know. Boring job and everything." Eric told Rage. A Jeep showed up to pick the both of them up. They hopped into the vehicle and it drove towards the city "Anyway! Been up to much?" Eric asked him questionably.

"Well I went to the casino, won two thousand, visited the hospitalised and blew my money in the arcade!" Rage fished round in his pocket. "Slayde did well, won five million. He told me to give you this." Rage handed the 100 ring note to Eric. Eric took it off him. "I guess Slayde knew I would blow my half!"

"Haha, thanks. So how's Sonic doing?" Eric asked.

"Well he's okay. But they say he won't be up for a few days." Rage replied. They stay silent for the rest of the journey and the Jeep stops in the sub urban are just before the urban area. They both hop off and it drives away. The two of them start heading into the city, Rage simply followed Eric unsure as to where they're going. While they're walking Eric bumps into Rage left hand slightly. Suddenly he stops as his eyes widen.

"Oh god!" Eric suddenly said. He started pushing his way through all of the crowd forcibly. Luckily he was a strong Echidna so he could do this and people wouldn't be able to fight back. "I've got to get to Sonic right now!" Eric shouted to Rage. Eric pushes his way through the crowds and half runs to the hospital, most people not moving out of his way as he ran. They make it to the hospital and Eric goes straight through and to the elevator. Pressing the correct button Rage barely makes it in on time.

"What's going on?" Rage said. Eric just stood there silent. Rage decided instead of asking now he's just wait until they got to Sonic. They make it to the appropriate floor after a long wait as the hospital was apparently far busier than when rage was there last time. Eric went straight out of the elevator and took the second left then first right. Turning into the second door on the right he burst into Sonic's ward to see a female nurse in the room.

The bed was empty.


	6. 05 Darkened Hero

_Darkened Hero_

"Where is he?" Eric almost shouted in panic to the fox nurse who was setting the bed Sonic had been in only this morning. Rage came in quickly behind him still following him and wondering what was going on. The Fox looked at Eric in fear. "Where did he go?! Where is he!?" Eric was still speaking in a panicked voice.

"H-he went out!" The nurse managed to stutter to Eric. "Left about half an hour ago." The nurse looked like she feared for her life.

"And you didn't inform us?! What were you thinking! He doesn't know where he is!" Eric shouted at the nurse again, tears started forming at her eyes. Rage put his hand on Eric's shoulder.

"Calm down mate it's not her fault." Rage spoke calmly trying to sooth Eric. "What's going on anyway? You still haven't told me!" Eric still looked completely panicked, though at least now he wasn't shouting at the nurse.

"I need to find Sonic." Eric said to Rage hastily. Rage just looked at him with a confused looked. "Now!" Eric shouted. Eric started to rush outside of the room but Rage grabbed his arm.

"Wait, I'll try and locate his Chaos energy signature." Rage said calmly, closing his eyes. Eric started tapping his foot impatiently as Rage continued to look. Rage was searching for over a minute until he opened his eyes. "I can't find him anywhere in the city." Rage looked concerned.

"Shit. Shit. Shit!" Eric said looking at the nurse in a stern way. "Did you tell him?" He spoke questionably and frustrated at the same time. The nurse looked at him petrified.

"I didn't realise I wasn't supposed to?" The Fox said looking away like she was about to be hit as Eric looked at her sternly. "No one told me!" She said defending herself in panic.

"Tell him what? Eric what's going on?" Rage looked at Eric with great suspicion. "Eric just tell me. Now." Eric looked at him. Then sighed in a giving up way.

"You remember I told you that I sometimes can tell when someone's turning point is. The moment they change from evil to good or vice versa?" Rage nodded. "Well a robot army has just attacked the city, we've been fighting them off." Rage looked shocked and opened his mouth to say something. "Before you ask, we don't want the public panicking. Also Tails asked specifically for your group not to be told. This nurse must have overheard part of the conversation Knuckles and Tails had." Rage looked at him slightly shocked. "Well Sonic's time is upon us. His most life changing moment. If we don't find him soon... God knows what will happen!" Eric shouted the last bit in worry as he turned round to head out the door and out the elevator. Rage grabbed his arm.

"There's a faster way down." Rage indicated the window as he approached it. Both the nurse and Eric looked confused.

"I can't survive a fall like that!" Eric stated, shocked. Rage prepared himself to jump out the window.

"I'll catch you." Rage said as he jumped out the window of the building. Eric ran up to the window to see him falling. He shrugged and jumped out himself. Leaving the nurse standing there shocked.

Rage slowed himself down by using his Chaos powers so that Eric swiftly caught up to him. Rage stopped using them as soon as Eric was in his arms bridal style and they soared towards the ground. Just seconds before they landed Rage send out pulses of Chaos energy from his feet, causing him to rapidly slow down but not in such a way that would kill Eric. Rage touched the ground and put down Eric down onto the floor, the floor was cracked slightly from the impact. Eric shook his head to shake off the feeling of falling. He quickly pulled out his mobile phone looking thing. "Have any guards let out a cobalt blue hedgehog walking by himself?" A reply came out almost right away with a familiar voice.

"Aye, I le' one 'ut 'ere on t'e W'ste'n gate." The Scottish accent of a familiar ferret could be heard. "Thou' 'e were back'p"

"Okay, well if he comes near the gates get him in." Eric replied. He looked like he quickly changed frequencies on the phone type thing. "I need a Jeep on the Western end of the city to take me up to the West gate pronto." Eric then quickly placed his phone back in his pocket. "Come on." Eric said to Rage as he began to push through the people again. People moving out the way made it far easier to walk at a fast pace.

They arrived at the edge of the urban part of the city to see a Jeep waiting for them in the sub urban part. Eric quickly ran into it and it started up. Rage who had been took by surprise ran up to the Jeep and jumped on while it was moving. The Jeep was moving very fast considering that it was moving through a well populated area and a quick inspection showed why. The streets had been majorly quarantined in the fact that all the lights were red so that the Jeep could move through fast. They must have been going at round fifty miles per hour. "You must be quite important to be allowed this privilege." Rage said to Eric.

"Well I'm not really that important." Eric waved off. "But I am on top priority because of being your guide." Rage nodded in understanding. As soon as the Jeep made it out of the suburban area and into the rural area it sped up to a good seventy miles per hour. After almost three minutes the Jeep skidded to a halt and Eric jumped out, swiftly followed by Rage. The ferret could be seen running inside of the hut. Suddenly the great big doors of the gate started to open to reveal...

* * *

Sonic found himself jogging in a countryside like area. This whole place was a lot to get his head round. Eggman was attacking though and he knew he must stop Eggman at all costs. Especially when so many lives were at stake. While he ran through the main part of the city there were always crowds that never let up. Even in the less urban areas there was a lot of life. It was as if that city was the planet. He knew he had to save it. After running at what was close to a sonic boom inducing speed he slowly came to stop outside a massive gate. He was pretty sure this was the western gate, the place the nurse said it was the thickest. A ferret came up to him hurriedly and asked him if he was the reinforcement they were waiting for in a strong Scottish accent. Sonic just agreed, it'd be easier for him to get through if he didn't have to explain. He could feel the scabbed wound on his stomach tug slightly. Sonic knew he had to be careful with it or he'd risk dying again.

The ferret had disappeared from view leaving Sonic confused but suddenly the gates started opening up and he knew what was going on. Sonic quickly ran through the gates as they started to shut again, having only opened enough for two of his shoulder lengths. He looked round outside and a brutal, desolate scene met him. It was raining heavily and there was a thunderstorm sounding in the background. The ground was coated in red, bodies were strewn across the floor inconsistently and there was pieces of robot laying all over the place. From what Sonic could tell there were more broken robots then dead people. Always a good sign that they were winning. Looking across he could see thousands, maybe even millions of people fighting out scattered across the horizon. Most had at least two robots fighting them at once and one red figure seemed to be fighting about twenty.

Sonic realised that the red figure was a familiar Echidna. Sonic started jogging up to him in order to help out his friend. As he was approaching Knuckles had managed to take out ten of the robots which left nine similar ones and one that looked particularly well built. "Knuckles!" Sonic shouted out to his friend so that he knew he was there. Knuckles faced Sonic when suddenly a gunshot was heard. Even from his distance Sonic could see Knuckles shock as he clasped his stomach. Sonic saw the smoking barrel of the one that attacked Knuckles and screamed out in rage as he headed towards it. He saw Knuckles stumble out of the corner of his eye before taking out eight more of the common robots in a skilled swipe infused with pink Chaos energy. Sonic charged at the well build one with full power and jumped into the air, charging a powerful spin dash in the air he infused his body with a very pale orange Chaos energy and shot himself at the robot piecing it and causing its immediate destruction. Knuckles took out the last robot before collapsing to the ground.

Sonic ran over to his injured friend to see how he was doing. Sonic kneeled down next to the laying Knuckles and got him to move his hand. There was a profusely bleeding hole that looked like it had done damage to an organ, Sonic was fairly certain the bullet had pierced his lung. "Sonic." Knuckles said weakly.

"Hush. Don't speak. Just try and hang on." Sonic whispered in sorrow. Knuckles smiled at Sonic.

"We both know that I'll drown in my own blood before there's any help. I'm glad I got to see you again before I died. I didn't think I would." Knuckles chocked out. The effects of one of his lungs being slowly filled with lungs already acting.

"Come on Knuckles. Don't say that. You'll be fine." Sonic was expressing his worry greatly. Sonic realised he had to accept it. "But I haven't even been able to see you. I wanted to hang out again."

"I know Sonic. I was looking forward to that too. I suppose we'll get to hang out sometime in the afterlife." Knuckles chuckled to himself slightly causing himself to cough. They both knew Knuckles didn't believe in an afterlife.

"Knuckles. You're my best friend. Tails was always like a brother to me but a younger brother. You understood easier because we were almost the same age. I don't want you to die. I don't want you to be gone!" Sonic started breathing heavily, trying to hold back tears. He had to shout his points to get them across and so they we understandable though the deep breaths. Knuckles put the arm that wasn't clutching his chest on Sonic's shoulder

"You know what Sonic? You're my best friend too. You have been ever since you saved my Master Emerald. God this hurts!" Knuckles announced to Sonic. Choking up the occasional bit of blood as he talked. "My vision's starting to go hazy. I don't think I'll be able *Cough* to hold on *cough* for much longer." Knuckles breathing had become laboured and he constantly coughed up little bits of blood. "I don't *cough* want *cough cough* to die Soni..." The breath left Knuckles as his body suddenly relaxed, eyelids drooping slightly and hand falling to the floor.

"Knuckles." Sonic said gently, carefully nudging him as if trying to wake him from a light sleep. The thunder over head crackled. "Knuckles!" Sonic said it with more force this time shaking Knuckles still body slightly more violently, like he was trying to wake a heavy sleeper. "Knuckles?" Sonic said it softly, as if realisation hit him and he was simply trying to deny what had just occurred. Sonic started crying next to his dead friends body. "No Knuckles." Sonic managed to sob out as he looked up to the sky. He placed his hands on his face and pulled them down roughly while he was weeping. He leant his head down, looking down to the floor next to Knuckles, his blood could clearly be seen on the ground. Sonic shallow quick breaths turned to deep quick breaths as he tried to pull himself together. Suddenly he started curling up his hand into a fist, his breathing changing into a low grunting. He continued to cry softly as he grunted in anger. The grunts getting deeper and deeper each time until the crying stopped and all that was left was the anger. Sonic fur slowly started to darken as he thought about Robotnik and revenge. His fur slowly darkened as his voice distorted and he ended up with a pure black pelt for fur.

Sonic looked up at Knuckles and finally opened his eyes. His eyes were completely blank and devoid of emotion. Sonic placed his left hand on Knuckles right shoulder. "I shall avenge you." Sonic said in a voice that didn't seem his. It was tinted with evil. The thunder crackled again as Sonic suddenly heard metallic movement behind him.

"Sonic the Hedgehog confirmed. Initiating anti Sonic manoeuvres." A metallic voice was heard behind him. Sonic counted three of them. They started shooting at him, the bullets just bouncing off his dark Chaos infused skin and fur. Sonic chuckled evilly. Suddenly a soft 'thock' was heard. Sonic looked down at Knuckles unmoving body and saw a fresh bullet wound in his gut. Sonic growled loudly and spun round. He instantly located all three of the robots at were firing and shot across faster than ever. Tearing his hand through the chest of the robot and destroying the reinforced steel robot like it was made of tissue paper. His eye quickly flicked to the left as the two remaining robots attempted to locate him. He soared straight towards the robot that was in his vision and ripped though the stomach of the robot with his outstretched arm, tearing it in two. He looked up at the last robot, the one who had initially spoken as it looked at him. "Error. This is not Sonic nor Shadow. Unknown hedgehog." The robot read out. Sonic laughed at it.

"Glad we got that I'm not Sonic out of the way." Sonic said evilly. He shot across at the robot and completely obliterated it with ease. Clapping his hands to wipe off the dust as he smirked. "Eggtard just gets worse and worse at building these things." He kicked one of the pieces of robot really hard. Sending it flying into the distance and making it shoot through a long line of rather butch looking robots. This caused them all to explode from the inside. Sonic licked his lips in a crazy sort of way, staring at the destruction he just caused while the line of Echidnas that were fighting them all stuck their thumbs up in thanks before moving on to a different robot. Sonic crouched down into running position and sprinted towards a large cluster of robots that were surrounded by a ring of Mobians. He jumped right into the middle of the cluster and most of them turned to him.

"Sonic the Hedgehog confirmed..." Sonic let off a small Chaos Blast, destroying all of the robots in the immediate vicinity and leaving just a single ring of robots on the outer edge where the Mobians were. Sonic quickly ran round the inner circle and completely trashed every single one that was in that ring.

"Sonic my arse." Sonic said as he stopped to admire his handwork. Most of the Mobians shouted their thanks as they ran off to find more targets to destroy. Some were simply too shocked to do anything. Sonic looked up at one of the younger Mobians that was just standing there staring at him. "What you looking at?" Sonic said harshly to the young Wolf. All of the Mobians still near him scattered and went to find other targets. Sonic smirked evilly again. He looked round to see plenty more robots that needed 'fixing' Sonic cracked his knuckles. "This is going to be fun." He announced as he flexed his now cracked fingers. Sonic ran past many robots at high speed obliterating each and every one of them as he passed. Looking back he saw a long line of at least a few hundred fall down and the hundred or so Mobians look round in confusion as the robots fell to the ground. Each of them actively fighting at least two robots. Sonic chuckled slightly before continuing on his mad way.

As Sonic was running towards what looked like a large group of robots he noticed some sort of flying machine above him that was obviously filled with a massive amount of robots. Judging from the size of the flying thing and comparing it to the size of the robot it looked like it could store about five thousand robots in, and that was without considering that it looked like it could have as many as five layers. Sonic quickly ran close to the distant machine that was slowly lowering itself. Sonic started charging a yellow bolt in his hand. _"Chaos."_ He held the word as the brightness of the bolt increased. _"Grenade!"_ He shouted shooting the bolt of Chaos energy at the ship. It looked just like a Chaos Spear but then it connected. It cause a mighty explosion that completely vaporised the machine. He looked up as a few remaining pieces of metal flew to the ground. He heard someone approaching and turned to see a young male brown Echidna coming near.

"Hey!" The Echidna called over to Sonic as he approached. "We've managed to take out pretty much all of the smaller ones now. You just destroyed the last wave of them so there aren't many left. We're more concerned with some of the larger ones down the southern gate. Although the main force hit here it seems that a very large robot was sent down there. This robot is single handedly taking out most of the defence down there." Sonic looked blankly at the Echidna kid. He didn't seem like a bad kid but Sonic didn't like being told what to do. Sonic decided he may as well agree. It'd be fun to take out the most powerful thing that Robotnik sent. However, before that. Sonic looked up at the Echidna kid and stuck his thumb up. Then in the blink of an eye ran round in a spiral ending up in the middle of where he was previously standing and the wall. Every robot within a mile of him fell to pieces as a sonic boom was heard in for a great distance. Sonic smirked and started running in a zigzag while following the wall and going towards the southern entrance, destroying every robot in his path.

Sonic arrived at the south gate, he quickly looked round and couldn't see anything out of the ordinary except a bunch of Mobians all bunched together and a load of dead bodies strewn across that floor, staining the ground in red. There were small pieces of metal littered in random places. Sonic wondered if they had maybe defeated this big bad robot. Then suddenly he heard a loud noise coming from above him. Looking up he saw a robot that looked really quite familiar. A golden robot adorning a spear in its right hand and a shield in its left could be seen. It's chest no longer had a glowing portion though. Meaning its main weakness had disappeared. The Egg Emperor seemed to have spotted him as it stopped circling round the group of Mobians and headed for him. Sonic stood there and smirked at it. The robot was obviously remotely controlled, there was no place for a cockpit in sight. "Looks like Eggtard is losing his imagination!" Sonic announced to the robot in a cocky manner. Suddenly a voice crackled through on what Sonic could only assume was a long range intercom.

"Sonic? Is that you?" Robotnik could be heard speaking through the robot. The robot lowered it spear but kept its strong shield propped up to defend against any surprise attacks.

"I suppose. That's what I've been called for so long now. The name came to me in my sleep, I was called something else by my adoptive parents. I believe Sonic is the name my birth mother gave me." Sonic said to Robotnik. Sonic stepped forwards, causing the robot to raise his spear.

"What happened to you? Why are you in that form?" Robotnik questioned. The robot still held up its spear and shield.

"You happened."

Sonic fling himself through the robot, tearing directly through the shield and through the interior body. Sonic crouched down on the other side of the robot as it exploded in multiple places. Sonic stood up and smiled to himself evilly. It looked like he had 'fixed' all of the robots nearby. Sonic decided that he best get back to Knuckles body if he wanted to protect it and get him a proper sending off. Sonic clenched both fists and yelled into the air letting off a thin sheen of black energy from his body. It floated upwards and slow dissipated in the air. Suddenly the rain started slowing down, coming to a slow and gradual stop before the clouds started parting about Sonic and a small patch of sky could be seen. The patch gradually grew until the patch of sky was visible for almost one hundred kilometres in every direction. Sonic looked up and smiled at his handy work. It was a true smile. Though he didn't get how he did made the sky like that, he just knew he did. Sonic looked down. His fur was still the same back colour but his eyes were green, only slightly darker than his usual eye colour.

Sonic ran back to Knuckles body to find it undisturbed from the last time he saw it. He kneeled down next to his close friend and closed each of his eyes. "Goodbye Knuckles." Sonic muttered as he stood back up Knuckles in his arms as he carried Knuckles bridal style. Suddenly a loud roaring sound could be heard. Sonic whipped round to see if any robots were left standing but was instead greeted by a large crowd of Mobians of all shapes and sizes all cheering for him. They all looked pleased and terrified at the same time. Sonic couldn't work out whether they were scared of him or they were simply horrified their leader was dead. A familiar brown male Echidna pushed his way through the crowd and made it to Sonic after punching another Echidna out of the way.

"We're all thankful for your help! Without you a lot more lives would have been lost. What is your name black hedgehog?" The Echidna asked him formally. He looked at Knuckles and looked upset despite all of the good that had just gone on. Sonic decided he would talk to him, only because the Echidna was showing caring towards Sonic's deceased best friend.

"The name's Sonic. Dark Sonic."

* * *

Amy was stood in a small ring with Shadow. The room was sealed off to the rest of the establishment yet noises could still be heard coming from the other area. Jeering and shouting could be heard muffled in the next room. Only the occasional word was decipherable to Amy and most of them were words like 'kill', 'destroy', 'smash' and 'obliterate'. It didn't really strike much confidence in Amy as Shadow swung a punch at her, connecting with her shoulder. "Damn it Rose. Concentrate! I don't want to hurt you but you bring it on yourself when you daydream!" Shadow shouted at her. Amy snapped out of her trance as Shadow threw another punch at her, this one intended for her face. Amy swiftly moved her right arm to parry the punch and used the momentum of the dodge to throw her own left hook at Shadow's stomach. Shadow jumped back to avoid the hit, doing a back flip with a kick that barely missed Amy as she moved her head back just in time. "You're a fast learner Rose, we've only been at this for an hour and you're already getting the hang of it." Shadow said as Amy stood looking at him. Panting.

"Yeah?" Amy managed to force out while trying to catch her breath. Shadow nodded at her with a small smirk. Amy smiled at him in glee. "That's great news. I thought I wasn't progressing at all! All of the punches and kicks were coming at the same speed as when we first started and I barely managed to dodge them at all during the entire thing!" Amy looked slightly disappointed with herself and hung her head down. Shadow walked up to her and propped her head back up with his hand so that her eyes were looking into his.

"I was just using more of my strength as time went on. As you progressed I upped my game." Shadow said to her kindly. Amy blushed slightly as she looked into his eyes. Amy turned away. She looked as if she was about to say something when a rather butch looking Echidna walked in.

"Your hour is up. Time to pack up and leave." The Echidna pointed over his shoulder as he said it. He then stood at the door waiting for the two to leave. Shadow immediately hopped over the metal bars that went round the ring. Amy swiftly followed and got out a little less gracefully. They both passed the Echidna and three others immediately after who looked like they were most likely next up in the room. They got out into the packed main room. The room was probably about a square kilometre in size and contained within it about nine fifty meter square rings. Each with its own betting hut and rules. Amy expected Shadow to head straight for the entrance but he instead walked over to one of the rings, luckily as crowded as the room was, he walked down a small gap in the middle of the crowds that were all bunched round the rings. All of them were screaming different things as people in the rings beat each other up. Each of the rings seemed quite brutal to Amy who hadn't had much experience with this sort of thing. Shadow seemed to look at home. Amy looked up to where they were headed. It seemed like they were off to the cage match area.

"Where are we going Shadow?" Amy finally spoke up after much doubt about what was going on. Surely he wasn't going to enter her into a match?! Amy got a worried look on her face. Shadow detected the worry in her voice.

"We're heading towards the cage match arena. The rules at that particular arena state anyone can enter to fight the winner of the previous match who stays in until he is defeated or withdraws. The bets are based on who wins the match and a knock out or give up are the only ways to lose. Killing is forbidden but it isn't unknown despite that. Now before you start worrying Rose I am not entering you. Learning from watching can be a helpful tool as well. Besides, I want to test out how much I've developed while inside of the cell. That pitiful robot I faced was too weak. Or inexperienced. I couldn't work out which." Amy looked up at Shadow. She admired him for his strength and abilities. If she was honest Shadow had always been stronger than Sonic she just refused to believe it. He was simply deeper in touch with Chaos than her blue hero. They reached the cage arena and Shadow walked up to the betting area. The human sitting at the desk was talking over the intercom for that ring.

"Will no one dare challenge our winner of seven matches, the indestructible. Ted!" Shadow sniggered slightly at the name and the human sitting behind the desk looked at him. "It seems we have a challenger!" He waved his hand to bring Shadow over. Shadow walked over slowly. The human spoke to Shadow with the intercom turned off. "You got a name?" Shadow said his name to the guy as the crowd started shouting about there being another match. "The phantom Shadow enters the ring!" The guy shouted over the intercom. Shadow rolled his eyes at the guy for making his name seem 'dramatic' before jumping into the ring. "We'll start the match in five minutes while we take your bets." A countdown appeared above the ring, as the cage side we lowered down, the countdown slowly dropping from the number five. Amy quickly walked up to the man before the hordes of Mobians attempted to farm an orderly queue.

"Five hundred rings on the black hedgehog." Amy said pushing her rings to the man behind the counter. The man looked at her funny.

"Ted is an Echidna, they are renown for being incredibly strong and good in fights. I don't want to steal like that off a pretty face." The guy behind the counter said. Amy just looked at him sternly.

"I want to place my money on the black hedgehog." Amy stubbornly said. The guy behind the counter shrugged and took her money, handing her a slip.

"The bet is 200:1 against the hedgehog winning. If he wins you get 100000 rings back. Good luck!" The human behind the counter said. A large messy queue of about two hundred had formed behind Amy and without delay the human behind the counter stated moving through the bets quickly. Amy quickly moved to the side of the ring with Shadow on.

"Hey Shadow!" Amy shouted at him amongst the noise. Shadow's delicate ears picked up on the sound of her voice and he turned round. "You best win! I've bet all my money on you!" Amy shouted at him. Shadow rolled his eyes at her. Amy smiled to herself as Shadow turned back round. She had no doubt he'd win.

"Okay times up for betting! Two people have bet on the phantom Shadow and two hundred and thirteen have bet on the indestructible Ted." The guy on the intercom with quiet for a moment while everyone except two of the crowd laughed at Shadow's expense. "Let the round, begin!" A loud noise much like a bell was heard as he said the word begin. The Echidna on the stage threw a mighty punch at Shadow for Shadow to catch it perfectly barely moving. Shadow quickly unleashed his own punch onto the unwitting Echidna's head as he let go of the fist. The Echidna stumbled back and tripped over his own feet, bringing him down to the floor. Everyone in the crowd surrounding the cage was surprisingly quiet. The Echidna quickly got back to his feet and had an embarrassed look on his face.

"Lucky shot!" He shouted. The crowd started shouting and cheering again, shouting abuse at Shadow. Shadow just rolled his eyes as the Echidna came at him again. A heavy hard punch that was most likely his strongest lugged at Shadow. Shadow swiftly dodged the speeding fist with ease. The Echidna managed to barely read his movements as he swung a second punch at Shadow. This one more accurate as Shadow was quite close. Shadow parried it off and swung in another hit of his own, landing a neat hit into the Echidna's gut. The Echidna stumbled again and fell flat on his back. He curled up as he coughed from his windedness. Shadow stood looking at him with his arms crossed. It was obvious that Shadow was going easy. Yet Amy could see that he was using far more strength than when he was sparing with her. The crowd roared at the Echidna to get up. Most of them having bets on him. Some people were cheering on Shadow. Amy assumed these people were either part of a group bet on Shadow or people who just didn't bet.

"I haven't got all day." Shadow said in a serious attitude. The Echidna slowly stood up while glaring at Shadow. Shadow stood there looking at him with his usual look. The Echidna threw a sluggish punch at Shadow, slow from the damage to his stomach. Shadow dodged to the left and grabbed the Echidna's arm with his left arm, pulling him forwards and making him stumble. As the Echidna passed Shadow's body Shadow placed a well aimed elbow into the back of the Echidna's neck. The Echidna fell like a sack of potatoes. The crowd roared in protest.

"Seems the phantom Shadow has won by knock out! This was unexpected!" Amy went up to the clerk and handed him the slip. "That was an awfully impressive match. I've only seen about ten contenders beat Ted like that." The man handed the money over to Amy. "Friend of yours?" The human asked as he handed the 100000 rings to Amy in 10000 notes.

"Sort of. He's my sensei." The human behind the desk looked impressed. Ted had walked off the stage after being drenched in water. He walk off low and miserable. Shadow stayed on the top and waited. A male yellow Armadillo walked into the ring and cracked his knuckles at Shadow.

"Ah! Regular mighty Mike. Returns to the stage! Mike is well known in the stage as you all full well know. His longest undefeated streak being thirteen! One of the highest here." The human announced loudly over the microphone. "I'll take everyone's bets; five minutes again. Be sure to check in your betting slips if you won something before leaving. Remember that they are valid for only 24 hours after the match concludes!"

"I'll bet on the black hedgehog again." Amy said pushing her winnings to the human once again. The human looked slightly confused before taking the money.

"You must be very confident in this sensei of yours. His win is being put down as a fluke. Though now the stakes are just 10:1 for him to win So your return will be one million." The human said in a matter of fact voice. Amy smiled at the clerk before walking off to stand behind where Shadow was waiting. Shadow looked at her.

"You best win this one too." Amy said joking. Shadow smirked at her before turning back to his opponent. The Armadillo was eyeing Shadow up. Trying to work out what he was made of and his fighting techniques. Amy was completely confident in Shadow ability to fight. She didn't doubt him one bit. Amy stood in a day dream about how strong Shadow was until suddenly the bell sounded to start the match. Amy quickly looked up as not to miss anything but both of them were just standing there, waiting for the other to make the first move. Shadow inched forward with his feet, scuffing the ground. The Armadillo followed suit. Suddenly the Armadillo jumped at Shadow, sending a punch flying towards his gut. Shadow tried to block it and almost fumbled it. Luckily he had his left hand further back to block anything that got passed his right. Shadow got a quick right jab in on the Armadillo who winced slightly but wasn't overly bothered by the hit. The Armadillo took a swipe at Shadow head causing Shadow to duck and forcing him to let go of the Armadillo's hand. The Armadillo swiftly jumped back.

The crowd roared like crazy. This time there was a few more people cheering on Shadow but most were still for the opposition. Shadow took up a defensive stance and looked like he was concentrating. He could be seen inhaling then exhaling deeply. He closed his eyes. The Armadillo suddenly jumped at Shadow while he had his eyes closed and swung a punch at him with incredible strength, the whole of his body behind it. Shadow stayed completely still until the punch was mere centimetres away from his face. Then he suddenly dodged and swung his arm into the Armadillo's stomach using the momentum of the Armadillo's own attack against him. The Armadillo went flying into the metal bars on the other side and slumped to the floor, already unconscious before he hit the floor. Most of the crowd went silent only one person was cheering Shadow in the background. Amy smirked at Shadow as he started rubbing his head in an embarrassed way. "Oops." Said muttered still rubbing his head. "I think I hit him too hard." Shadow stopped rubbing his head and just shrugged. All of the Shadow supporters roared with passion.

"And unbelievably that is another win for the phantom Shadow! Is he the next Terra Williams? Come, take your winnings while someone braves going up against our new fighter!" The announcer shouted. Amy couldn't help but wonder who Terra Williams was and why he called her by her proper name rather than some fancy thing he came up with. Amy got in the queue of people who were collecting winnings, there were about ten people.

When Amy's turn came she decided to ask about the person he mentioned earlier. She handed her slip to the human and breathed in. "So who's Terra Williams?" Amy asked politely.

"You don't know who she is?! She's only the strongest underground fighter we've ever had! Never been defeated! Even after her longest streak of fifty she only quit because she was bored, not tired!" He carried on talking as a light brown female Echidna walked onto the stage. Amy watched in awe at her; she didn't seem like your average Mobian. The clerk handed Amy the money and finally looked round to see who had gone onto the stage. He quickly turned back with a look of pure surprise on his face as he spoke. "Terra! What you doing here?" The brown female Echidna looked round to where the booth was.

"Heard my name so I thought I'd join in." Terra said cheekily winking at the clerk. Amy looked up at the Echidna, then looked to Shadow. Shadow was shaking his head at her. Amy guessed what he meant by it.

"Are you betting again?" The clerk said to Amy. Amy shook her head slowly. "Ah too bad, but probably wise." The human said before Amy moved aside to allow a queue to form. The human spoke over the intercom as Amy moved away "Five minutes for bets everyone." Amy walked up to Shadow. As Shadow watched her approach she gave him a questioning look. He took in a deep breath before answering Amy's unasked question.

"This'll be the fight where I get tested. I'd rather you not bet on me when there's even the slightest chance of loss. She's stronger than me, though I doubt she's faster, I have an edge." Shadow said looking at Amy. "She's actually quite a fine specimen of a fighter. She may be stronger in Chaos than me." Amy looked at Shadow in surprise. Inside she was jealous that Shadow was speaking of his next opponent that way. Amy wasn't sure why though. She thought it was probably because of the fact she was his disciple and she wanted the praise. Amy stuffed the money into her front pocket

The bell sounded and the crowd fell silent, only people from the other rings could be heard in the distance but the crowd was swiftly growing. Shadow and Terra quickly moved into defensive positions. Terra waved her hand in a bring it on way as she smiled at Shadow. Shadow simply smirked at this and said "Ladies first!" Terra smirked back and suddenly jumped for him. She moved like a bolt and if Amy wasn't used to seeing Sonic move at this pace she would have missed it. Shadow swiftly dodged to bring a punch round into Terra's side. Terra quickly spun round and used the momentum of her spin to parry Shadow's blow. Both parties jumped back and moved into a defensive position again. "You're pretty good." Shadow announced to her. Terra smirked.

"You're not bad yourself." Terra replied. Shadow smirked back. Shadow made the first move this time and threw a right punch at Terra which almost connected with her temple but Terra jumped into a low back flip and unleashed a powerful kick towards Shadow. Shadow knew he had no time to dodge so he quickly moved his left hand down to block it. The kick collided with Shadow and his arm gave way, Terra's foot hit his face and sent him flying backwards in a flipping motion. Shadow gathered his bearings in mid air and landed in a crouch to find that Terra was already bearing down on him with a punch to the head. Shadow tried to dodge and simply got grazed on the cheek and ear. He swiftly tried to move into a position to hit her but Terra had already started bringing her knee up for a hit in the gut. Shadow noticed it too late and doubled over from being winded. Terra quickly put herself into a heavy uppercut and punch Shadow in the face as he bent from being winded. This knocked him up again and made him face her as she brought her other hand to smack him in the face with her palm. Shadow stumbled backwards with a slightly bleeding nose. Terra quickly ran at him to get another hit in but Shadow recovered from the barrage quickly and jumped right over her head, momentarily confusing her.

"I think I'll change that to very good." Shadow said to her as she looked at him and smiled. "But playtime's over. Time to step it up." Terra stood there, amused at Shadow's words. Shadow grabbed his wrist and twisted one of his resistors off. He moved onto the other one as Terra stood there smiling at him and waiting for him to finish. "Rose catch!" Shadow threw the rings at Amy who caught them perfectly. Amy smiled at him before he turned round to face his opponent once more. Terra waited casually as Shadow prepared himself to fight her. Concentrating on bringing his energy out. The moment Shadow was distracted with his focusing Terra dived at Shadow with a left hook. Shadow quickly dodged and threw a punch to her stomach. Terra quickly defended with her left arm which almost gave way. She quickly jumped back.

"Those weren't ordinary rings were they?" Terra said to Shadow as she observed him. Shadow just grinned at her and jumped towards her himself now throwing a right hook. Terra quickly moved into a defensive position and pushed Shadow's incoming fist to the right with her right arm, then using Shadow momentum against him she hit him in the face with her palm again. Causing him to stumble again. Terra ran up to him again and started to throw a punch but Shadow ducked to dodge and put a heavy punch into her gut, causing her to cough. Terra continued to attack despite being hit in the gut and swung her knee up towards Shadow, Shadow moved his leg up swiftly to block Terra's attack. As Shadow stood up to block the attack from underneath Terra attacked from above and sung her fist right into Shadow's face. Once again he stumbled. Terra put a massive amount of strength into a kick that went into Shadow's side sending him into the side of the ring. Terra quickly chased him to the side of the ring and pinned him against it with her side, punching Shadow in the gut repeatedly. After about a minute of this Shadow managed to push her off, breathing heavily. He looked up at Terra darkly, who simply smiled at him. Shadow started to calm his breathing through concentration as Terra jumped at him with her left fist once again. Shadow caught it and didn't budge.

"I shall not lose in front of Rose." A slight yellow aura suddenly surrounded him as his quills started to pick up and spike upwards. Suddenly his black fur changed to a lemony cream colour. Shadow let go of Terra's hand and looked at his arms. "Well that's new."


	7. 06 Goodbye Knuckles

_Goodbye Knuckles_

Terra jumped back from Shadow and looked at him bewildered at his sudden change "You didn't tell me you were one of the damno exemplar." Now it was Shadow's turn to look at her weirdly. "I forfeit!" Terra shouted, swiftly making her way out of the ring. Shadow stood there so mystified that by the time he had come round to his senses Amy was pulling him off the ring and Terra had long disappeared. Amy pulled him all the way out the large door that she knew lead to the staircase to get back to ground level. They entered the room with the stairs to see blood stained walls and a few tramps. Amy continued to drag Shadow and started going up the stairs with him.

"Rose? Why are you dragging me?" The yellow Shadow asked. Amy continued to drag him up the stairs. "Can you give me my rings back? I'm starting to feel rather drained." Amy continued to drag Shadow until they got to the top of the stairs. She then turned round and handed him his rings. She waited for him to put them both on and his lemony yellow cream fur turned back to its usual black colour. Shadow leaned against the wall at the top of the stairs, panting slightly. "So why did you drag me all the way out here?" Shadow questioned once he had caught his full breath.

"I thought I best get you out of there before someone tried to do something stupid to you causing you to hurt them! You were standing there like an idiot while the crowd was getting enraged. I think they didn't like the way the battle just ended like that and blamed you." Amy explained. Voices could be heard getting louder from the bottom of the stairs, one of them was heard above the rest.

"I think they went this way!" A gruff voice of a man could be heard. Amy looked alarmed and pulled Shadow down the hallway at the top of the stairs that lead to the exit. Shadow gently pulled his arm out her reach and ran next to her.

They ran out the door, receiving funny looks from some passers by. Shadow quickly scooped Amy up in his arms and ran a few blocks down, swerving in and out of the pedestrians dangerously. He stopped outside a rather posh looking building which looked like it had a restaurant on the first two or three floors of it. Shadow quickly put Amy down and immediately looked back to see if they were being followed.

He could see the crowd moving out the way as people exited the doorway to the underground facility. "Hey Shadow, let's go in here. I can pay with my winnings." Amy said from behind Shadow. Shadow continued to stare at the crowd swarming out the door they had just came out of. He felt an arm link with his as Amy gently pulled him into the restaurant.

* * *

The gap in the doors revealed a bright light, one that hadn't been seen in that area for many years as it was covered in smog, the light of the real sun. Both Rage and Eric gasped in shock. The ground, though still just as ruined as always, was covered in a bright light. It gave a completely new look to the place.

They could see an extremely large crowd of soldiers not too far off in the distance, Rage pointed at it and Eric nodded. They both started walking towards it. Rage was suddenly blinded by the bright light as he made it out of the shadow of the wall. He swiftly looked up and could see the natural sun in all of its beauty. He smiled a soft and gentle smile as he continued walking towards the crowd.

As they approached the crowd they could hear a lot of cries of happiness, joy and praise. Rage couldn't place why they were all so happy about what had probably been an epic battle with casualties on both sides. By the time he got right close to the crowd however, he could hear mournful cries of regret. Sadness on an epic scale and curses of people telling themselves that they should have tried harder, should have done something different. Should have saved their fallen comrades.

Eric approached one of the people at the edge and tapped him on the shoulder. The Mobian continued to shout and cheer like he hadn't felt the tap. Eric shouted at him over the voices. "Hey! Could you listen to me!" The soldier turned round slowly, revealing a yellow ferret, looking at Eric he was slightly irritated because he was disturbed.

"What?" The soldier shouted back over the loud noises. Rage paid attention to the soldier as Eric asked the pressing question that was on both of their minds.

"What's happened, what's going on?" Eric asked the soldier, the soldier smirked slightly, seemingly pleased to be able to announce what had happened to someone who hadn't seen it. A quick glance at the soldiers uniform told him that he was a private as he had no insignia.

"Well the battle wasn't going too well, we were marginally outnumbered and they had been far improved compared to what we was up against last time. Commander Knuckles said it would be a tough battle, but... Well. We wasn't expecting this. Luckily a hedgehog, one that I can only guess came from the special division, came at a crucial moment and gave us a crucial advantage!" The private looked pleased. Eric and Rage looked at each other. They knew who it must be.

"What's this hedgehogs name. And where is he now?" Eric asked. The private smiled.

"It's a black hedgehog called Dark. As for where he is, well isn't that obvious? He's right in the middle of this crowd!" The private looked pleased with himself, while Rage and Eric were both confused. It was best checking it out properly. Rage realised he was probably in his dark form, but how and why were questions that could be answered another time.

"Okay, let me past so I can get to the centre." Eric said to the private. The privates eyes bulged as he looked annoyed.

"I had to practically fight for this spot, I'm not letting you past!" The private looked at Eric harshly. Eric let out an irritated sigh. Eric pulled back part of the coat he had on that was hiding his military uniform, the privates eyes wandered down to the insignia that housed itself upon the uniform that Eric was wearing. Once again the privates eyes bulged as he saw the insignia that Eric was adorning.

"As your Colonel I order you to step aside soldier." Eric said harshly. The private looked like he was going to shit himself as he hastily moved out of the way. "I ought to have you demoted for that insulting tone, lucky for you there is no way that you can be any lower than you already are. I suggest you watch who you talk to in future or you may end up with a severe punishment." The private looked at his feet in a humble manner, not wanting to be punished in any way.

Eric walked straight past him with Rage right in toe, the private looked up swiftly to see Rage laughing at him and gave him a deep glare as the two walked through the crowd like a knife through butter. "What a dick." He mumbled under his breath. Rage turned his head to look at him, nodding to show that he had heard. The private clasped his hand to his mouth as they disappeared from view.

It took them a couple of minutes to get to the middle of the crowd, but eventually they found a small clearing circling a brown Echidna and a black Hedgehog holding the dead body of a red Echidna. The black hedgehog could be seen talking to some of the younger privates that made it into the centre of crowd, it sounded like he was giving them battle tips. Rage and Eric approached him and as they got closer Rage shouted out "Hey Sonic." Sonic stopped mid sentence to the recruits and turned round to see Rage stand just behind him grinning.

"Who said that?" Sonic said darkly. Eric looked between Rage and Sonic quite bewildered. Rage however grinned at Sonic.

"I said it." Rage announced to Sonic. Dark Sonic's arm suddenly shot out, holding him by his neck and lifting him off the ground. Sonic looked right into Rages Emerald green eyes with his own darkened Emerald green eyes.

"Only my friends can call me that." Sonic said darkly before dropping Rage back to the ground and swiftly turning his back on them. Rage landed on his feet and, with a look of enragement, made his way to the black hedgehog. Eric stuck his hand out in Rages way. Rages stopped and let his anger slowly subside as Eric approached Sonic.

"Is that Knuckles you're carrying?" Eric asked. He already knew the answer, but he needed to remove any hope and doubt in his mind. Sonic once again turned round, he was visibly upset within his eyes but his face betrayed no sadness and revealed only anger.

"It is indeed." Sonic replied. Eric faltered, his breath catching slightly as the news hit him. He had prepared for it but, well, he obviously hadn't prepared for that blow quite as much as he thought he had. He hadn't prepared enough.

Sonic noticed that Eric's upset and his face softens slightly looking at Rage again he scowled before returning to Eric as he spoke. "This is truly a blow to our army. Our troops will no doubt of had their moral kicked from underneath them. As I most certain have." Eric looks up to the sky and in the distance can see the cloud ever so slowly reclaiming the sky that it had lost. "We should all head back inside before any type of reinforcements appear."

"Pah! Reinforcements. I could take them all on by myself." Sonic scoffed as he started walking down towards the gate, the crowd parting and moving along with him as he headed there. Everyone slowly moving back so that he was at the front and all were following him as he walked with Knuckles in his arms.

"Everyone!" Eric shouted, no one seemed to hear him as the chatter and shouting simply continued. "Everyone!" Eric shouted once again. Again no one fell quiet.

"Everyone shut up!" Sonic shouted at the crowd. Suddenly they were all silent.

"We're going to have a funeral for Knuckles and all of the lost soldiers in a few days after all of the dead bodies have been collected and identified so we can put them on the memorial pillar. I will make sure it is announced in the next coming days on the television. All of you return to your homes until then." Eric concluded his speech to the crowd. Almost straight after he had finished Sonic started walking again and Eric quickly followed in toe. The rest of the crowd started shouting and talking among themselves once again. There seemed to be more upset than there was before. Obviously a lot of people hadn't yet heard the bad news that Knuckles had perished in the battle. They reached the gate and there was a figure standing there with a rather sombre look on his face.

"Hey." Slayde shouted to Rage and Eric. Eric and Rage nodded while Sonic just looked at him. He recognised him and was pretty sure he was one of the ones Sonic owed his life to. Sonic also nodded to him as the crowd made it through the gate.

* * *

Two days later.

"And so it is now that we are forced to say goodbye to so many good soldiers, each of you will have known separate people. Many of you will have known at least once of the people well, whether he or she be in your squad, or it be a loved one as part of your family.

"But all of you will have known Commander Knuckles. If not fully you will have known him by name or in passing. He was always a hot tempered and gullible guy in the early days. But as the war progressed he became cooler. More calculating with his decisions. And always worked things out before he took someone's word for it.

"Despite him being the head of the army he was always a kind person, as I'm sure everyone who had worked with him knew. He was self sacrificing and always made sure that his decisions were the best for the army and the members it contained, even if that meant extra strain and stress on himself.

"Unlike most leaders of armies that we knew, he always fought on the front line with his fellows, something that he knew one day would lead to his downfall. Many owe their lives to him, and many would have gladly took his place.

"Words cannot describe how upset many of you must be from the passing of whomever was closest to you, words cannot describe how much I will miss Knuckles. But. I hope that everyone here will make sure that Knuckles or anyone else who died today has not died in vain. That all of you will take away from this a lesson. Make sure that anything you made a mistake in doing you do not do next time. Learn from this experience and make it harder for the bots to do anything.

"With all that said. We say our final goodbyes to those who have left us today, let us all hope that they have a good afterlife. You shall all be missed dearly. Normally someone as important as Knuckles would have been buried rather than cremated. But Knuckles said to me just hours before the end that he wanted no special treatment. He wanted to be burned along with his army. So this is it.

"Goodbye Knuckles."

Tails finished his speech standing next to the memorial pillar which contained the ashes of every soldiers body they had recovered. Tails looked out to see how many people were present. The crowds went on almost as far back as the eye could see. So many people had turned up for this funeral, more than ever. Obviously a lot of people loved and respected Knuckles as the great leader he was. Tails made his way to the small group he could see that was made of what was left of the old Sonic team who were in the city. Sonic put his hand upon Tails' shoulder as he stood next to him. The priest could be heard in the background talking about something to do with the Goddess and the afterlife.

"That was a good speech pal." Sonic said. Tails looks round at him and smiles.

"Thanks Sonic. Let's get out of here before the crowds start moving towards the city." The group swiftly moved towards the Jeep that was to take them to the edge of the main city. Rage broke off from the group and headed for the gate.

"I'm going to help with guard duty! See you all whenever!" Rage shouted at them as he jogged towards the gate.

The Jeep stopped letting them off, Shadow and Amy went off and headed back to their room, Slayde hopped off and walked off going wherever he normally disappears to, a mystery to them all. Tails got off the Jeep and Sonic followed right behind him. "Where we off then Tails?" Sonic asks.

"We're going to my office, that is as long as you want to tag along anyway." Tails replied. They walked without talking for while, the noise of all the people making it hard to hear one another. Suddenly a protester jumped across and tried to stab Tails with a short knife. Sonic was there in a flash and had his hand round the protesters arm. He swiftly kicked him causing him to soar into the side. The male human hit the wall and slid down with a groan. A couple of people started taking pictures of the scene while Sonic glared heavily at the person who had just attacked Tails.

Tails and Sonic continue to walk again "What was all that about?" Sonic asked.

"Some people here seem to view me as a bad person. I don't know why but for some reason they seem to believe that I'm out to try and rule the world!" Tails looked both confused and irritated. Sonic could see why. It's annoying when all you want to do it help but people just hate on you.

"That's just completely stupid! What idiots would be doing that!" Sonic exclaimed.

"It is really. I don't get how it happened." Tails looked round at Sonic and saw his now black tainted fur. "You've changed a lot Sonic."

"Well I was quite bluntly shown this world isn't sunshine and daisies." Sonic said abruptly. Tails falls silent and so does Sonic as they continue to make their way to the office.

After several more minutes they finally enter one of the buildings, Sonic notes it's one of the tallest nine kilometre ones. As they enter suddenly a whole bunch of security swarmed round to check who it was. Then they spotted who it was. "Oh Tails sir, we didn't expect you back so soon!" One of them said.

"Yeah Geoffrey, the funeral didn't take as long as expected." Tails replied to the one that talked.

"You brought someone, is he the one who helped greatly with the war effort?" The guard asked, pointing at Sonic.

"He is indeed. We're just going up to my room, I'm going to inform him of the latest info we have on Robotnik." Tails replied to the guard.

"Brilliant! It's good to see who helped the war effort so much Mr. Dark." Sonic smiled slightly before following Tails past the guards. The elevator opens before Tails even gets to it and someone gets out.

"Hello Tails, good to see you! Hope the speech at the funeral went well?" A Hippo in a lab coat said, most likely a scientist.

"Yes it went very well thanks. I hope that we can all try and move on from this incident before Robotnik attacks again." Tails replied, looking slightly sombre as his head drooped.

"The people are strong Sir! I'm sure that we shall be just fine." The Scientist said. "I'm in a rush so must be on my way! The wife is cooking a roast and I've been given strict orders not to be late!" Tails chuckled slightly as the Hippo walked off swiftly.

"Hope you enjoy it!" Tails said loud enough for him to hear before he turned round to see Sonic standing in the elevator holding open the door.

"I'm waiting." Sonic said in the cocky manner he always used to say it in. Tails smirked again as he rushed in.

"Press the top floor button Sonic." Sonic immediately obeyed and pressed it for his pal. After a couple minutes of silence Sonic spoke.

"This place is really amazing, I'm really impressed with what you've done in my absence Tails." Sonic complemented the fox. Tails laughs in a bashful way.

"It wasn't all me. Without the Echidnas and their metal there would be no city!" Tails announced. Very happy inside that Sonic complemented him.

"Some serious shit must have gone down while I wasn't here, right?" Sonic said solemnly, sad that he wasn't there for it all.

"A lot has. Mobius and Earth were fused. A lot of people we used to know are long dead." Tails said, head drooping again.

"There has to be some way of stopping this oversized dick head!" Sonic said angrily, punching the door and leaving a slight mark.

"There is, it's just practically impossible!" Tails said still solemnly staring at his feet in defeat.

"Between me and Shadow it should be no problem!" Sonic exclaimed. "We even have Amy who seems to be blossoming in her powers and this guy 'Slayde' who doesn't seem to be as strong as Shadow and myself but is far stronger than average."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It's been so long since you've been round that I've been losing faith. It won't be easy though!" Tails said to him, perking up a lot.

"And how often do I do things that are easy?" Sonic said cockily, some of his old attitude coming back. Tails grinned at him when suddenly the door opened. Revealing his floor. They both make their way in.

"I actually normally have an assistant here, wonder where she got too..." Tails announced. Instead going up to a panel that that needed to scan Tails' eye. Tails quickly scanned it and headed inside, pulling Sonic in behind him. The doors immediately shut once Sonic was through.

Sonic looked round the office, no, the workshop with awe. It had a small chamber in the middle with what Sonic assumed was the two fake Emeralds in it powering the city and shield. But that wasn't all. The entire room was covered in different projects and different types of gun that had been built were hanging all round the wall. Nearest Tails' desk was a project that looked like it had seven Emerald slots in. It also had four handles round it that people were obviously meant to hold onto. The whole thing looked like it was no bigger than something that fit into a rucksack. "Impressive isn't it."

Tails broke him out his thoughts and Sonic turned to him sitting behind his desk, grinning. "So Tails. How did you get captured?"

"Ah well. I was visiting another freedom fighter base you see. I needed to take them an EMP device I had finished. It also needed installing which was something only a few people could do." Tails explained to Sonic. Sonic nodded, then asked another question.

"Why aren't all the fighters here?" Sonic pointed out. This seemed like one of the strongest fortresses he's ever seen.

"Ah, well you see Robotnik has many bases in many places. We need to try and keep an eye on him at all times so we have mobile bases. Some freedom fighters even go it solo. Mainly being spies. Oh yeah, Rouge is the leader of the spies, though you might have guessed that!" Tails explained to Sonic. Sonic looks at Tails impressed.

"I bet it's hard being in control of all this! I'm impressed mate." Sonic told Tails.

"Yeah, it is pretty hard. We get attacked by those sort of armies every month or two at an inconsistent rate. This last one was three months wait and that was the largest yet. Normally we decimate the army with ease." Tails tells Sonic, slightly worried.

"I'm pretty amazed that you all hold them off so well! Well done on that!" Sonic told his brother.

"Unfortunately we don't know where Robotnik is. He moved base before the base exploded from you all attacking it. How he escaped I shall never know. I doubt he died because his armies wouldn't attack without his command."

"It's a bit of a pressing matter not knowing where he is! Do we have any clues as to where he is located?" Sonic asked. Tails shook his head solemnly before changing the subject.

"Each of his bases is surrounded by a small city of metal that are each full of various kinds of worker bots. These cities are constantly patrolled by offensive type bots." With a press of a button he brought up holographic images of three different types of bases. "Over half of the bases are like this one." He points towards the middle image. "We've discerned that he makes offensive type bots in these. About a third of them are made of that one to your left. We've discerned that these make worker type bots. And finally the rest, minus one, are made in the final design. These make his larger robots that take days to complete."

"So how's that last one designed?" Sonic asked curiosity getting the better of him.

"Well no matter how hard we try we just cannot find the schematics for that last one, that one being base 7E. This leads us to assume that something unusual is going on in that base. From the outside it looks far more heavily guarded then most as well, so it is quite likely where he went." Tails replied.

"That's very interesting, I wonder what he's up to in that area!" Sonic says in a curious tone.

Tails then pulls up some schematics on a strange looking robot. One with some form of cockpit. "This robot is half a kilometre tall." Tails explains. "All we've managed to get our hands on is the exterior schematics and can't get anything else like the interior, power source, etc. But. This is what we believe is being built in that base by Robotnik, quite possible personally."

"That's one impressive piece of machinery! Do you not have anything on what it can do?" Sonic asked.

"It is a piece of machinery that would take a long time to make, possibly even months." Tails explained. "Rouge stumbled across the schematics half a year ago, they were quite freshly made." Tails breathed in heavily. "I along with a few others believe that the normal attacks from the robotic army are in fact some form of 'suppressing fire' forcing us to try and defend as well as possible behind these walls while he builds that to tries and destroy the city once it's done."

"We need to stop him then! Come on if you give me directions and stuff then I'll go stop him right now!" Sonic exclaimed, excitedly standing up.

"Sonic! You can't!" Tails shouted at him, knocking Sonic out of his excitement.

"And may I ask, why not?" Sonic responded.

"The whole planet is covered in his many bases, most places are far too toxic to cross or go anywhere near without proper gear. The easiest way is to try and take down his bases and regain control of the earth to reduce the amount of pollution in the air and get rid of those toxic patches." Tails said to him calmly, Sonic had sat back down again.

"But we have so little time Tails!" Sonic speaks in a raised voice.

"Sonic, we must." Tails insists. Sonic relaxes and backs off. He's always known Tails to know what he's talking about.

"I really want him gone too Sonic, but we can't rush this and fail." Tails explains to Sonic.

"Okay bud." Sonic said sympathetically. "It must be far worse than you, being cramped up in that box means I haven't had to go through it for all that time." Tails smiled at Sonic.

"Thank you for understanding Sonic."


	8. 07 I Don't Trust You

_I Don't Trust You_

Over the next few weeks the group that had come to the city together never met if they weren't already together. Rage stayed at the gate and helped with the guard shifts; Sonic spent his time with Tails, sleeping in the spare room next to his workshop, he stayed in his dark form; Slayde spent all of his time with the woman he met at the casino; and Shadow spent all his time training Amy, not letting her rest 'more that she needed', Shadow had reverted to his normal form. Simply put they weren't the best of friends.

Shadow took a swing at Amy's head as she quickly strafed to the side to avoid it swiftly moving her own strike in aimed at Shadow's gut. Shadow used his other hand to clasp her fist and pull her into a throw, causing Amy to go flying into the sides of the rings. Amy hit the ground slower than she sprang back up, ready for another attack to come towards her. Shadow however stood his ground and waited for her next attack. He was completely unpredictable and it made impossible to fight him easily. Amy decided to take a page out of his book and also stood her ground.

Both fighters slowly edged towards each other, each one eager to notice a weak spot in the others defences. No attacks were made however as neither fighter were leaving openings. Shadow foot slightly snagged the ring that they were in causing his head to whip down to see what it was Amy swiftly took the opportunity at the opening and threw a strong punch at Shadow's head, just to find it was a feint. Shadow's head quickly snapped up again and he brought up a swift uppercut to Amy's jaw. Amy's eyes flared open as the fist approached her, it was far too fast for her to avoid.

Shadow stopped just short of the punch and flicked her instead. Amy still staggered backwards from the force, even though it was just a flick. She rubbed her chin.

"That was taking the piss just a bit don't cha think?" Amy said smirking at Shadow, she quickly moved into a defensive position once again, panting. Shadow smirked back and also moved into a defensive position.

"No not at all." Shadow replied smugly. Shadow relaxed and looked at her calmly. "Gather your breath." Shadow sat down so that one knee was pointing in the air so that he was leaning further one way than the other, his breath could be heard to be marginally faster than normal but it was gone within seconds. Amy followed suit and sat down. They both sat there, Shadow staring at Amy, until Amy's heavy breathing steadied.

Shadow stood back up again. Amy stood up slowly and then suddenly charged at Shadow, trying to take him by surprise. Shadow smirked at this, swiftly moving out the way and tripping her up, causing Amy to fall on her nose. Amy sat back up. "That was just mean." She said rubbing her nose.

"You're getting better." Shadow said helping Amy up. He was about to say something else when the door opened.

"Hey time's up guys." A brown Echidna had come to show them out of the room to allow for the next people to come in and have their share of the private ring. A couple of other orange Echidnas stood behind him, presumably the people who were getting the ring next.

"Okay we'll be right out." Shadow said to the guy who was asking them to leave. He signalled over Amy and both jumped out of the ring and exited. Amy noticed that one of the Echidna's, one about her age, was gazing at her chest.

"Get a girl, perv." Amy said as she walked past him. The orange Echidna teen growled at her and leaped to attack, Amy quickly flung herself into defensive position. Shadow swiftly turned round to keep an eye on the Echidna, however, the older Echidna grabbed the younger ones arm, preventing him from moving.

"Come on little bro, it's rude to stare." The older Echidna said to the younger one. The younger one snatched his arm away and, with one last glance at Amy, stormed towards the ring. "Sorry about that, he's a little touchy."

"Oh it's fine." Shadow said, surveying the orange Echidna, moving slightly closer to Amy. "Just tell him to keep his anger under control or he might piss off the wrong person." Shadow's eyes glowed with a dark fire. The Echidna smiled.

"I'll try, but some thing's they just have to learn the hard way." Shadow smirked at this and relaxed a bit. The Echidna got prepared to start walking.

"Too true. See you round here some other time." Shadow said before turning to leave, Amy right in toe.

"Some other time." The footsteps of the Echidna could be heard entering the room with the private ring in. A loud 'what took you so long?' sounded just before the doors closed.

"I think you're ready." Shadow said to Amy. Amy looked at him in shock and mystification.

"Ready? Ready for what exactly Shadow?" Amy asked. Not completely sure what he meant and yet pretty sure at the same time. Shadow sighed.

"I think you're ready to get in one of the main rings and face your own opponent for the first time." Shadow said happily to her. Amy stopped in her tracks and looked at Shadow mortified.

"I'm not. I'm terrible at this! I can only just make your breath faster! And that only lasts for a few seconds!" Amy exclaimed, putting herself down badly. Shadow glared at her.

"Amanda Rose do not put yourself down!" Shadow said to Amy sternly. Amy looked to her feet, her ears flattened, hurt from Shadow's tone. Shadow relaxed a little and put his hand on Amy shoulder causing her to look up, right into his eyes. "I'm sorry." Amy almost gasped. Shadow rarely ever apologised so you always knew he meant it when he said it.

"It's okay Shadow, you just startled me. I wasn't expecting you to defend me from myself." Amy smiled at him, and much to her surprise had her smile returned by one of Shadow rare one-second-long smiles. Of course being one of those it went as quick as it had come.

"Come on Rose, let's start walking again." The both started heading directly for the entrance, Amy marginally behind Shadow. "We'll get you some food first, that way you can get your energy back and have a rest. You remember the fact that there are multiple rings here? And that each one has its own set of rules?" Amy nodded and Shadow managed to catch it in his peripheral vision. "Well there's one of the rings that specifically holds a small period of time each month ruled for disciples. It's a more of a tournament type thing where eight disciples enter and then battles in a tree." Shadow pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of nowhere and drew what he meant so Amy would understand.

"Seems simple enough." Amy said to Shadow as he screw the piece of paper up again, they had reached the bottom of the stairs at this point and there was a convenient bin at the side. Shadow threw it and it conveniently didn't miss and went directly in the bin. They both made their way up the stairs quickly and reached the top in no time. "So what are the rules for this?" Amy asked Shadow. Shadow breathed in deeply, quickly trying to refresh his memory.

"Win by knock out or if your opponent gives up. If a round goes on for longer than 30 minutes then a winner shall be decided by the judge." Shadow said, looking at Amy as they stopped just outside the door that led to the streets. An Echidna walked straight past them heading down as they stopped, revealing the crowd outside before it closed again. "Oh yeah, there's a 500 ring entry fee, but the winner gets 2000 rings and the runner up gets 500, basically, their money back. Bets are also allowed on runner up and winner, as well as what round a specific person will lose in. To qualify as a disciple you need someone who is obviously stronger than you and looks the part or you won't be allowed to join." Shadow stood up straight in a proud of himself way.

"Okay, I'll try my hardest in it for you Sensei." Amy looked at Shadow, unsure whether to be happy or shocked with his faith in her. Shadow smirked and pushed the door open, then shouted at her over the noise.

"Let's give your speed a test with a run back to the hotel." Shadow said smugly before jumping over onto a building and running across it, triangle jumping to avoid falling. Amy smirked herself and run after him, her speed had greatly improved, and though it was nowhere near Shadow and Sonic's, she managed to keep up with the blur she could see in front of her. In no time to two had made it to the hotel. Shadow jumped down and landed in the entrance bit that didn't have anyone in. Amy noticed it and jumped for it too, landing right next to Shadow. Suddenly as she landed she lost her balance and fell. Shadow swiftly moved and placed his hand in the way to protect her from falling on her face. "Are you okay?" Shadow asked sincerely. Amy nodded at him, going red in the face for such a simple cock up. "Okay let's go in. I'll try cooking this time." Amy pulled a face of mock shock and Shadow rolled his eyes. They both headed into the hotel together.

Shadow walked through from the kitchen with two plates in his hands. Amy was sitting at the table waiting. While Shadow had been teaching Amy how to fight Amy had also taught some cooking skills to Shadow as his want to eat was practically none existent, his need to eat being completely none existent due to him being the ultimate life form, semi-immortality made it so he had no need of food. Because of this he never bothered to learn and simply ate out if he wanted to eat. Amy inhaled the smell of the cooked food deeply.

"Smells good Shadow. I can't wait to try it." Amy picked up her fork as Shadow put the food down to reveal Spaghetti bolognaise. Her eyes gleamed at the same time as her held up fork as she swooped the fork down to scoop the food. She started wolfing it down as Shadow sat down and started eating his food more slowly. Within a few minutes Amy had finished and was sitting there looking at Shadow who was about half way through his food. "That was delicious! Good cooking Shadow." Amy stuck her thumb up at him, he rolled his eyes at her.

"You ate that fast." Shadow said between eating another mouthful. Amy grinned at him.

"Ever since I've been spending time with you I've been forgetting to eat as much. You just never stop! I've even started sleeping less as I only get about four hours before I wake up again, ready to train." Amy half smiled, unsure whether it was a good thing or not. She knew she still got all the nutrients she needed, just in two big goes rather than her previous four meals a day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. Now she just had lunch and dinner. Shadow looked up from his plate with a glimmer of worry in his eye.

"That's not so good. Do you feel like you're getting enough sleep? And enough food? From what I've remembered I never had this effect on anyone aboard the ARK." Amy froze in shock, Shadow never talked about the ARK anymore and even back when he did it was only ever to Rouge. Amy snapped out of her trance to find Shadow still staring at her with the same hard face as usual, but the small almost hidden glimmer of worry was still embedded in the back of his eyes. Amy felt herself go red slightly.

"Yeah, I'm fine Shadow, thanks for asking. I get out of my room when my body wakes me up naturally because it thinks I've had enough sleep." Amy smiled at Shadow, the small hint of worry faded from his eyes, she was happy he cared even if he wouldn't show it.

"That's good then." Shadow said bluntly, poking the last of his spaghetti with his fork before eating it. "You ready to go compete in the tournament?" Shadow asked. Amy almost shot out of her seat in surprise.

"Already? Isn't it a bit soon? I'll lose the first battle!" Amy said in a panicked voice. Shadow rolled his eyes at her.

"Stop putting yourself down. If we don't go today we'll have to wait another month for it again, if we're still here. I'd really like to know how well your potential is growing. I can't really do that unless you fight against people who you've never fought before." Shadow said sternly. Amy realised he was right and tried to put a bit more faith in herself. "You should believe in yourself a little more. You might not be the strongest person in the world but you are most certainly not the weakest." Amy smiled at this.

"Thank you Shadow." Amy said, still smiling at Shadow. Shadow shifted uncomfortably for a moment and then grabbed the empty plates and took them in the kitchen. Leaving Amy in the room by herself. Several minutes later Shadow came back to Amy, who was now sitting on the sofa, to find her with her fingers all touching and thumbs touching on the opposite side, a small ball of energy glowing in the centre. A small red ball.

"_To be honest I am astounded with her progress. I have not known anyone progress as fast as that other than myself and... And? There is no 'and' so why did I think it?" _Shadow shook it off. "You're doing well Amy." Shadow sat down next to her on the sofa. Amy smiled slightly through her concentration. "Level 5 red. You've made astounding progress in this short amount of time. But it'll get harder and harder to progress as you get higher up. By the time you get to yellow it'll be taking you years to get to the next level. Especially if you don't have someone to help guide you. Or train with in general." Amy let her concentration falter slightly by looking at Shadow, but the sphere stayed there. Shadow quickly registered that her ability to tap into her Chaos powers were also coming more naturally now as well.

"You can't really say that Shadow." Amy said to him calmly. Shadow looked at her confused. Amy rolled her eyes at him this time. "You managed to take a jump from level two yellow to level eight yellow... In one day!" Shadow looked as if he was deep in thoughts at these words.

"I've been thinking about that. It can't just be coincidental that both me and Sonic had such a large jump in power at the same time. I need to discuss my theory with Tails, however, before I inform anyone else." Amy pouted slightly, but she knew that Shadow had his reasons for not telling her what his assumptions were. After all, if there was one thing Shadow hated more than anything. It was he hated being wrong. Amy released her sphere and turned to Shadow fully.

"When will you start teaching me Chaos powers rather than just martial art moves? Don't get me wrong I love learning them all! It's just I'd like to learn some." Amy smiled at Shadow in the way a little kid does when she wants something. Shadow smiled grimly.

"Maybe after your tournament. As I said I need to paint an accurate picture of your strength." Shadow spoke to Amy reassuringly. Amy tried to hide this disappointment on her face. Shadow Checked the small clock that he had bought and put near the television. "11:51HT." Shadow said calmly. "Shit! 11:51HT! Rose we need to leave and get to the building in nine minutes to register. The elevator would take up about 5 of those minutes minimum." Shadow quickly strolled over to their window and opened it. "Looks like you're getting a crash course in free falling. Try to jump so you can use the strength of your legs to push off the wall to throw yourself right into a triangle jump. I'll keep an eye on you to make sure you're okay, but if you do it it'll increase my faith in you." With that Shadow jumped out of the window. Amy looked out of it dauntingly. She was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to survive a fall like that. She knew both Sonic and Shadow could easily, it was just less conspicuous to jump before hitting the floor. Amy also knew Shadow wouldn't let her down. She jumped out right after him.

She felt the resulting adrenaline rush almost instantly. _"To be honest it is kind of nice free falling like this... Oh god I'm turning into an adrenaline junkie." _Amy thought to herself as she fell. The ground approached rapidly and she got her legs ready for a strong jump. As soon as a piece of strong concrete came parallel with her she made the jump and soared across to the other side, almost completely halting her fall downwards. She could still feel gravities pull on her however, but she knew she would make it to the other side without falling too hard. She saw Shadow run off towards the stadium as she landed on the building and immediately began her pursuit.

They made it to the area in four minutes and they both headed inside together, quickly heading down the stairs. Amy made sure that she was slightly behind Shadow when they got to the bottom of the stairs as she didn't know where she was going. Shadow rapidly strode towards the arena that had the biggest crowd and Amy followed right behind him. Within seconds they were at the desk. "I'd like to enter my disciple into the tournament." Shadow said to the human behind the desk. He peered over to Amy with green eyes and surveyed her.

"You're just in time, there's one spot left. That'll be 500 rings please." Shadow quickly handed over the 500 ring note that he had. Making a mental note to one day thank Slayde for giving him any money to win money from betting for himself in the first place. The clerk handed Shadow a small ticket. "There's a small area to the left of the ring that allows the disciples and their masters to stand with some room. It also contains the tournament board. Good luck." Shadow thanked the man and then grabbed Amy and directed her to the small clearing that the human had mentioned. They made their way inside quickly. Amy looked at the tournament board as Shadow went over to the person in charge of the board. The letter A suddenly appeared at the eighth slot as she was looking at it.

A

"Looks interesting doesn't it?" A familiar voice sounded. Amy spun round to see who it was. Just to see the orange Echidna that was staring at her boobs earlier. She scowled at him. He frowned "I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean any harm." Amy relaxed a bit. At least he apologised unlike some arrogant hedgehogs she knew. "This your first time in the tournament? I haven't seen you before and I've been coming for a couple of months." The Echidna asked.

"Yeah, this is the first time." Amy pointed to the board. "Which one is you?" the Echidna quickly looked over at the board.

"I'm Joshua." Amy's eyes immediately darted to the 'J' next to her in the first match.

"_Oh God." _Amy thought.

"The fourth letter along, not the one near the end. Who are you?" He asked. Amy once again relaxed. At least she wouldn't be against a more experienced fighter in her first round.

"I'm Amy. Only A on there so you can't miss it!" Amy said sweetly. Joshua smirked.

"Be careful in this tournament, even the girls are brutal. No offence." Joshua said. Amy just smiled at him and looked round for Shadow, to notice him talking to the older brother. She saw the older brother whisper something to Shadow and she saw Shadow smirk at it. This got her curiosity up. She walked up to Shadow with Joshua right in toe.

"What you talking about Shadow?" Amy asked cutely. Shadow looked over to her and his eyes gleamed with an inner smile for a moment.

"Seems were so late that the first round had just finished. They are about update the digital reader now. A girl called Tess beat a girl called Beth." Shadow smirked at this and looked over to Amy, who was feeling mixed feelings about entering.

"Looks like that Tess girl will be your opponent after this Harry boy." The older Echidna said confidently. Joshua smiled with self confidence. The older Echidna turned back to Shadow and offered his hand out. "The name's Jack by the way." Shadow looked at the hand in half disgust. He wasn't big on social interactions. He took the hand and shook it half heartedly anyway.

"Shadow." Shadow simply put. Jack smirked and was about to say something as they announced the next fight was beginning. Joshua made a quick dash for the ring. Jack, Amy and Shadow watched him go. Shadow mumbled to Amy. "Keep an eye on the fights and analyse their fighting technique for the later battles." Amy nodded in understanding as a bell rang and the 30 minutes counter came up on the screen above the ring and started counting down. The Crocodile called Harry immediately jumped forwards on the offensive. Joshua quickly dodged and gave him an elbow into the side. Causing him to stumble to the side, but the Crocodile wasn't going down that easily and quickly threw another punch at Joshua. Joshua parried this one causing Harry's momentum to take him to the side of Joshua, Joshua quickly followed through with a knee in the gut and the Croc fell over gasping for breath. Joshua placed his foot on the Croc and smirked.

"Give?" Joshua said. Harry couldn't talk in between the gasps for air he was taking to gather his breath.

'This guy is nothing compared to Vector.'Amy thought as she looked over to the wreathing Croc.

"I... Give." The Croc finally managed to gasp out. Joshua helped him up and took him to the side before coming over to Amy, Shadow and his brother.

"How was that!" He received a high five from his brother. Amy wasn't too impressed as she thought she would be. He moved a lot slower than she had expected, although she supposed that's what you get for practising against something that could move faster than the speed of sound. Shadow stood there with a scowl. She knew what he was thinking. In his opinion honour would have dictated to allow the fighter to get up and decide whether he wanted to give without intervening. She didn't know whether it was because she was Shadow's disciple or something else, but she agreed with those thoughts.

The next battle was announced and the group watched intently. In the end a purple chameleon called Hakan won. If Amy won her match she would be up against him next. Amy's battle was announced to be against a girl called Jasmine. Amy jumped into the ring and got ready. The girl came in the ring and Amy saw that she was a yellow Armadillo. Amy gritted her teeth slightly. Armadillos were known for being strong.

The bell rang and the counter started. Amy quickly readied up her defensive position in case of a direct assault and watched her opponent do that same. It was obvious that this one was not as stupid as the one that Joshua fought. Amy cursed her luck. She quickly snapped out of it when she saw a fist heading towards her, snapping her out of her trance. She really needed to stop daydreaming during fights. Amy quickly grabbed the fist that was heading towards her head and pulled it to the side, from the momentum of Jasmine's punch, combined with the strength of Amy's pull, which cause her to gain too much momentum, Jasmine stumbled. Amy quickly seized the opportunity and landed a fierce elbow blow in the bad of Jasmine's neck. Jasmine fell to the ground and didn't get up. Amy stood there staring at her rather awkwardly while most of the crowd was silent. Although Joshua's noisy tones could be heard quite easily through the silence. "Go Amy!" Followed by Shadow's dark chuckling which lasted a brief moment of a second before the crowd burst into a roar of awe and amazement. The judge quickly scuttled onto the stage and tested for a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief before gently picking up the body of the girl.

"Amy Rose is the winner by knock out!" There was another roar from the crowd as Amy started walking off, immediately behind the judge. The judge, a large Echidna, jumped over the barrier at the edge of the ring, rather than climbing through it, with relative ease. Amy climbed out of the ring and walked up to Shadow. She heard his dark chuckle again. It sent shivers down her spine but she didn't know why, it's not as if it made her afraid or anything like that.

"Well done Rose. You used that situation fully to your advantage and even accidentally used a weak point on the body. She should be out for about ten more minutes and then she'll wake up thinking she's still fighting." Shadow smirked. An orange Echidna with a memorable face came bumbling across.

"Hello Joshua." Amy said greeting him as he arrived back from going to see the unconscious Armadillo. Joshua approached her with an impressed look on his face.

"Way to beat her! That was awesome! Even faster than my time and by knock out to boot! I might have some competition in the final!" Joshua winked at her with the last statement. Amy rolled her eyes at him.

"It was a fluke Joshua, nothing more." Amy said to him, she heard a very soft growl come from Shadow. _I really need to stop putting myself down. _Amy thought, sweat dropping. "Well maybe there was some skill. It wouldn't have worked if I hadn't hit quite so hard, though, my elbow hurts now." Amy rubbed her elbow subconsciously. The tournament tree was displayed on all screens in the immediate area.

B **T** H **J** Y **H** J **A**

"Would Tess and Joshua please step into the ring." The judge sounded on the intercom. Joshua quickly looked up and dashed off.

"Got to dash!" Joshua shouted back to them as he ran towards the ring. This fight was going to be more action packed.

Joshua came back immediately after his victory had been declared with a big smile on his face and a bunch of bruises on his arms and one lovely black eye that had started showing already.

"Calling up Hakan and Amy." Amy looked up to the stage. That was a fast call up. Yet it was a long fight so that was probably why. Amy quickly scuttled off to the stage with Joshua cheering behind her already. She got in to the ring to see her opponent, a dark grey wolf who looked like he had an attitude. Hakan slowly moved in to a defensive stance, Amy followed suit just before the bell rang and the counter started. Much to Amy's surprise Hakan leaped right out throwing a fist right at her face. Amy reacted slowly due to surprise and Hakan's hit managed to knock her in the jaw. Amy almost fell backwards from the impact. Quickly straightening herself up again just to find another fist, this time on the other side of her jaw, connecting with her. Amy fell over this time but managed to use her arms and body to roll away from her opponent and spring up in a somersault. However, Hakan was already upon her. Amy had to use her speed to dodge each of the wolves attacks. Hakan was so relentless in his attacks, yet his guard did not drop one bit, that Amy couldn't fight back even if she wanted to. Amy knew that his technique was far beyond what she had even begun to comprehend and that if it wasn't for Shadow's training in speed and taking hits she would have been downed by that first punch or one of the consequential ones that followed.

"Come on Amy!" Joshua shouted in the background. Amy was amazed that she heard it over the roaring crowd, but had no time to dwell on such things as a kick came flying towards her. Amy noticed a slight misbalance in the way that he was leaning for his kick, she swiftly decided it was her turn to go on the offensive. Pushing his leg with as much force as she could muster she made the wolf almost fall, forcing him to plant his foot on the ground swiftly and use most of his concentration on not falling over. Amy curled the tips of her fingers inwards, baring her palm, but protecting her bendable fingers, she thrust her hand out towards the muzzle of the wolf and scored a perfect hit on his nose before he knocked Amy's hand out of the way and jumped backwards, clutching his nose in pain. Hakan looked at Amy with the wild eyes of an animal. Amy, unafraid, put herself back into a defensive stance, determined not to be took off guard this time, however he did not leap at her as he did last time and this time he stood in his defensive form, analysing her every move. Amy suddenly moved, but not to attack, Hakan flinched dramatically throwing up his defences. Amy just stayed still and smirked.

Hakan once again leapt forwards. This time Amy was ready for him and automatically parried his blow. Swiftly doing a roundhouse kick in his chest. He stumbled backwards, Amy quickly followed through with a punch to the side of his head, then an uppercut to his jaw, knocking him off his feet. Amy jumped back and watched him get back to his feet, shaking his head. He slowly put back up a defence. Amy looked up at the clock. 29 minutes 5 seconds. _"Shit. Less than a minute left." _Amy thought. Amy looked at the heavily breathing wolf. Amy jumped at the wolf without a moment's hesitation. This time the wolf was caught off guard with the sudden attack. Amy landed a punch on his jaw and a knee in the gut at the same time using a technique Shadow taught her. The wolf almost fell over from the dual attack, being winded and shook at the same time. Amy quickly spun round and landed an elbow to the side of the head. The wolf fell down to the ground. Amy steadied herself and rubbed her elbow. _'I need to stop heavily attacking bones with this thing.'_ The wolf was laid on the floor for a few moments, attempting to get himself up, but his arms kept giving way. The bell rang.

"Time has ran out and as Hakan is on the ground and is unable to get up. Amy Rose wins!" The judge shouted on the microphone. The crowd went crazy as Amy looked round. She went over to Hakan and offered her hand. Hakan looked up at her like a wounded animal and slapped her hand away, crawling up and stumbling over to where his sensei was. Amy quickly got off the stage and headed to Shadow. "Well be having a thirty minute break for the next two contestants to rest before their battle. As such. Here is the tournament tree."

B T H **J** Y H J **A**

"That was one hard match!" Amy exclaimed to Shadow. Shadow smirked at her.

"The boy you faced was 14 years old Rose." Shadow said to her patronisingly. "Why did it take you so long?" He then said cheekily. Amy opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, then gave up on what she was going to say. Shadow chuckled darkly. "You shouldn't worry about it. He's been fighting since the day he was born. He belongs to an elite race of wolves that love war."Amy smirked at Shadow.

"You had me going then." She said grinning to him. Shadow stared back at her. Deadly serious.

"I'm serious Rose. He belongs to an elite race." Amy looked at him confused again. Then sweat dropped.

"Never heard of them before." Amy said to Shadow. Shadow smirked at her again.

"I doubt you would have. They keep themselves to themselves. I stumbled upon one of their colonies once while I was running round. There aren't many left." Shadow told her. Suddenly a loud booming sound was heard. It sounded like something hitting something else very hard a great distance away. Shadow looked at Amy, whom nodded. Shadow swiftly went over to the clerk. "We're forfeiting." Shadow told him. The clerk looked in disbelief.

"But you can't do that!" The clerk said to him. Shadow smirked at him.

"I just did." With that he made his way back to Amy, they both started walking towards the exit, just to be stopped by Joshua.

"You're not going anywhere until our match is finished!" He said, blocking off Amy. Amy looked at him sympathetically.

"I'll fight you some other time Joshua. Not now. I promise." Joshua looked in thought. He stood there for several seconds before dropping his arms from his sides. He then stuck his fist out in front of him.

"Rivals?" Joshua sad to her, grinning. Amy grinned back to him. She knocked his fist dead on with her own.

"Rivals." Amy said, Joshua moved out the way and Amy turned to look for Shadow. She heard him shout.

"Rose hurry up!" She noticed him and quickly waded through the people to catch up, it seemed a lot of people were heading outside to find out what was going on. Amy finally caught up with Shadow and he used his superior strength to plough through the crowd like a knife through butter. Amy followed right behind so as not to fall behind again.

They eventually made it to the stairs, which were packed. Shadow swiftly made his way through though and in no time they were out on the streets. The streets were even busier than usual and so full that you couldn't move. There was another loud bang. This time they could tell that it was coming from the Northern area. Quite probably the gate. Amy looked to Shadow. "What we going to do?" She asked.

"We're going to put that new speed of yours to the test." Shadow grinned at her. Amy grinned back. "Let's go." Shadow jumped up and triangle jumped from building to building, Amy followed swiftly behind, Shadow was going far faster than her, but she knew she'd catch up once he reached his destination.

The Northern Gates.

* * *

"These past weeks have been nice, having you here. These parts can be quite rough sometimes." Eleanor said. Slayde looked at the Rabbit whom was looking towards her little Wolf cherishingly. Slayde had discovered that the father was a wolf who fought in the first hours of the take over, and died before Eleanor even knew she was pregnant. "It's been nice being away from my mum's constant nagging as well. And it's all thanks to you!" Eleanor smiled at Slayde, whom smiled back.

"It's nothing. Really. You've thanked me plenty of times over the past few weeks. You can just enjoy it now!" Slayde said to her. They were both sat on the sofa of a fairly nice apartment. It wasn't decorated amazingly, but it was definitely cosy enough to be a home. Eleanor looked at the clock, her ears drooped.

"You're leaving soon." It wasn't a question but a statement. "You always leave at 12:30." She said. Looking at him pleadingly. "Stay a little longer?" Slayde grimaced.

"I come 00:00 to 12:30 Which is more than half my day. You need rest and the cub needs rest, he isn't even 5 yet." He explained to her. "Plus something doesn't feel quite right today." _I wonder if the others have sensed it. Shadow's probably too busy, along with Amy. Sonic's mind is clouded. Hmmm._

"But..." Eleanor fell quiet; she knew that she would not win in her protests. Slayde looked over to the clock. And with a small nod made his way to the door. The cub looked over to him and looked although he was about to start crying.

"I should be here tomorrow." Slayde said to her as he opened the door.

"See you tomorrow." She said as he closed the door.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow" Slayde muttered to himself behind the closed door. He turned round, looking at his surroundings. The home is in the suburban district, notorious for its rate of crimes. The building is one of the smaller ones, with various apartments. Slayde swiftly jumped off the building down to the street underneath. Falling down perfectly and landing on his feet. Slayde stood there for a minute, unsure of what to do. The only reason he left was because of them, he didn't want them to become too dependent on him in case he went anywhere. Clicking his fingers he decided. He'd go and find out what Rage was up to. He hadn't seen him for quite a while.

Slayde started walking towards the Northern gates, pushing people out of the way gently as he moved through the crowd. Some people obnoxiously walked without cause, purposely barging people out their way. Slayde carried on walking straight towards one such person, essentially challenging him to a game of chicken. The person came close to him, Slayde saw him move into a position to barge him over. Slayde simply kept walking. The force suddenly came, Slayde quickly spun round at a speed only Chaos users could muster and caused the male to fall over. Slayde chuckled to himself as he kept walking.

The buildings were getting gradually lower and Slayde knew he was approaching the edge. It had to be about quarter to by now. Slayde suddenly noticed a small restaurant, making a detour from his original route he made his way right to it and got in. He noticed it was a fast food restaurant, which made him chuckle slightly. He walked into the fast food restaurant and walked up to the bar. "One large hamburger with fries please." Slayde said, digging into his pocket.

"Would you like a drink with that?" The teenage fox asked him. Slayde shook his head. "That'll be 3 rings please." The teenage boy said. Slayde dug out the correct amount. _Things in this city sure are damn cheap._ Slayde stood there waiting for his meal. It was ready almost immediately. Slayde grabbed his tray and sat down to eat. Scoffing the burger as he hadn't ate for a while and quite enjoyed eating. He looked out of the window next to his seat and saw a bunch of men standing there, holding improvised weapons. Pipes, wooden planks, etc. They were slapping them in their hands threateningly. Slayde turned back to his food and ignored them. Just as he finished his fries there was a loud knock on the glass. Slayde looked up to see a familiar face. The male he knocked over was grinning at him threateningly. Slayde rolled his eyes and stood up, he exited the restaurant and started walking towards the gate again. Fully aware that they were following him. Slayde looked up to see some other thugs standing further away in front. It seemed like they were trying to herd him to the left.

Slayde decided there was no point in spoiling their fun and purposely turned down into a small alleyway on the left that lead to a dead end, he assumed that was where they wanted him. As there were no civilians down there to watch. The alleyway took an L shape so he turned the corner and was completely out of sight from the rest of the street. _Time to teach these guys a lesson. _ Slayde thought. A bunch jumped down from the sides. The ones behind him rushed round the corner and some burst out of the nearest door. Slayde looked round and did a quick count. Twenty one with weapons and four without. He liked those odds.

Suddenly a loud 'boom' was heard. It was so loud all of the thugs clutched their ears in pain. Slayde flinched slightly, then immediately looked alert. It sounded like it came from the Northern gate. After all it had an odd metallic quality to the sound. It had to have been quite the impact. The thugs were stumbling round. Disorientated from the noise. He was thankful. He needed to head there as soon as possible. Slayde quickly jumped up on the nearest building. To his luck he was only a few tens of buildings away from the fields. _"That explains why it sounded so clear." _Slayde thought as he dashed off, jumping building to building in an attempt to locate the loud noise.

* * *

"Well Sonic, you've been here a while now. I hope you're enjoying your stay here?" Tails said to Sonic, looking up from the project he was working on, on his desk. The small Emerald holding one. Sonic still hadn't been told its purpose. At this rate he doubted he would find out until Tails had all the Emeralds. Sonic moved his leg onto his knee and crossed his legs with his right foot over his left knee and crossed his arms.

"It's been okay." Sonic said simply, bordering on bluntness. Tails Sighed. Ever since the death of Knuckles Sonic had been in a very dark mood all the time. Putting almost everything down and having clouded judgement on everything that he did. Tails wished that the dark form would just go away.

"So what you planning on doing today Sonic?" Tails asked him. Looking back to his work and fiddling with it again. Sonic could see part of the inside. Of the machine. He could make nothing of the seriously complicated circuitry. Sonic continued to stare at the strange machine in confusion and awe. Tails looked up again due to the odd silence. "Sonic?" Sonic shook his head, clearing away the daydream.

"Wha'? Erm. Yeah? No wait, no. I don't have anything planned." Sonic blurted out, apparently not even sure himself what he was saying. "Erm... Why do you ask Tails?" Tails breathed in deeply and sighed. Tails pushed down on a small thing that looked like it could transmit messages. "Could you bring in General Duality please?"

"Of course. He'll be there in approximately three minutes." A voice said on the other end of the line. Sonic looked at Tails in confusion. Tails rolled his eyes at Sonic and tutted. Quickly but carefully putting his project to the side he proceeded to tell Sonic what was going on.

"As you know, Knuckles is dead." Sonic was visible annoyed by this statement. His fists clenched and brow stiffened, however he made no attempt to go anywhere. "We need to have someone who can fill his position. Someone who is greatly skilled and not afraid of the battle field. Someone who is recognised and revered by the troops." Sonic nodded, acting like he understood.

"So this Duality guy is the person you think will be fit for the job." Sonic announced, nodding to himself in agreement with his own words.

"No Sonic. He's here to discuss who we think is suitable. You'll find out in due course." Tails said to him in a formal manner. Sonic leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. Tails stood up and made his way to the door. A few moments later there was a knock and Tails opened the door. A grey wolf adorning many scars entered the room. He wore a uniform that was made of a special looking material that glimmered slightly in the light. Sonic assumed it was woven with some kind of metal. "Hello, welcome back up here." Tails said to the entering wolf. The wolf looked at him.

"Ah it's good to be here. We need to get this thing sorted before Eggman decides that he is going to rear his head again. We all regret that it has to be changed though." The wolf hung his head low in sadness and respect. Sonic looked at him darkly, unsure as to what to make of this person he had never met before.

"Shall we?" Tails said, gesturing at a chair that was near Sonic. The wolf immediately looked up and smiled at Tails, nodding once, he sat down without a word. Tails swiftly made his way to his chair and sat down. Sonic looked at Tails.

"Why exactly am I here? Couldn't you have done this sometime when I wasn't here?" Sonic asked. Leaning back in his chair, evidently irritated by the meeting. Tails rolled his eyes at Sonic.

"Well we need you to have a say in the matter." Tails said matter of factly. Sonic looked at him in a curious way.

"Why do I 'need' to have a say in the matter?" Sonic asked Tails. The wolf looked round at him from his chair and spoke to Sonic.

"I would have thought that was obvious. We want you as the new head. After the battle that recently occurred, there are very few troops that haven't heard you name. They're revering you as a champion, a hero, and many of them wish for you to battle alongside them once again, myself included." The Wolf told him. Sonic looked at the Wolf marginally gob smacked. Which was hard to do to Sonic, especially in the mannerisms that he was in due to his new found hatred. Tails then spoke, snapping Sonic out of his state of shock.

"It'd be good for you. You'll have something to do. It's not technically just head of defence. It's also including the army that goes into the outer reaches, across the globe for sabotage missions and such. I believe that you would be a good person to put at the head of the soldiers, and Duality agrees, because of your reputation. Of course, you'll have people to support and help you so you can properly learn the ropes on how to command something so vast. You also have many people underneath you that you can simply ask to do what they think is best, they'll control small segments as the whole thing works like a tree. Although many are currently abroad. If you accept the job, I'll be taking you to meet some of these leaders. Also, I'll be taking you to see someone who is planned for promotion to a rank just underneath you for showing us such excellent ability to think tactically under pressure." Tails said to Sonic. Sonic sat there looking at Tails, unsure what to think. "Will you take the position?" Tails asked, holding out his hand in reach of a handshake. Sonic looked at the hand unsure. Then he smirked and itched his finger under his nose, grabbing Tails' hand and shaking it.

"I'll take it because you're asking mate." Sonic said to Tails. Tails smiled.

"Okay. Well as most high officers are busy or away, we'll be going to find the person up for promotion. I need to go and inform and congratulate him. We need to go to the Northern gate, as he currently spends much time with the guarding, something that keeps him well in touch with the men, and he seems to enjoy it, so we'll be taking a Jeep there." Tails opened his door, both Sonic and Duality followed.

"I think you may have heard of him. His name is 'Eric' and he was the one who brought everyone inside once the fighting was over." Duality said to Sonic. Sonic nodded as they entered the elevator.

The Jeep could be seen making its way to the gateway. Sonic's voice could be heard from down the road. "God this thing is so slow!" Sonic moaned. Tails tutted at him.

"Almost there Sonic." Tails told him, peaking out of the side of the Jeep. A few minutes later they slowed down to a stop. Tails got off the Jeep swiftly followed by Sonic then duality. The Jeep killed its engine and waited for them. They approached the door swiftly but before they got there Eric came out, intent on finding out what was going on outside with the vehicle. "Eric! Good to see you!" Tails shouted over to him.

"It's nice to see you all too. What may I ask has given me the pleasure of so many revered figures coming here?" Eric asked. He shook the hands of Tails, Sonic, then finally Duality. Tails moved to stand next to duality while Eric stood in the middle. This caused Sonic to be looking in the direction of the Jeep.

"Well there are two reasons for our visit here today. The main one being something of great importance to you. You are being promoted to General. Congratulations!" Tails smiled at him heartily. Eric looked extremely pleased with himself.

"I'd be honoured to take this role. When do I meet the troops I'll be commanding?" Eric asked sincerely. Tails smiled at him, almost chuckling slightly.

"In your position you'll be overseeing a lot more troops than before. You proved you could do it when a previous General died on field! You took up command and, against the odds might I add, won a great victory!" Tails told him happily. Eric seemed bashful of the compliment.

"Thank you Tails. I shall start preparing immediately! What was the other thing you wanted to tell me?" Eric asked politely. Bewildered as to what it could be.

"Well we've appointed a new head of the army. As you're now directly under him, we wanted you to be one of the first people to know, and also we wanted you to meet each other in person properly." Tails told him. Eric looked at Duality, then to Sonic, then back to Duality again before finally looking at Tails again.

"Who?" Eric asked. He obviously presumed it would be someone there, as Tails had practically given that away.

"Sonic here." Tails said, he gestured to Sonic. Eric looked at him and Sonic waved slightly. "He's to replace Knuckles after his untimely death." Sonic brow darkened as did his aura at the mention of Knuckles name, bringing the waving to a stop.

"Good to see you again Dark." Eric said formally, sticking his hand out to be shook. Sonic looked at his hand darkly before softening his look and shaking the hand. Meanwhile Rage came out to see what was taking Eric so long. Sonic had his back turned to the hut so he didn't notice him until he spoke.

"Hey guys, what's happening?" Rage asked the group in general. Sonic's body whipped round at the speeds that few Mobians could muster. Sonic looked at Rage with a death stare that could melt rock.

"You're the cocky one from outside." Sonic stated pointing at Rage in fury. Rage shrugged at him in a rather aloof manner.

"So what if I am?" Rage asked crossing his arms in a cocky way. Sonic continues the death stare until suddenly his eyes widen, Sonic jumps forward at Rage, grabbing his neck and holding him off the ground, Rage immediately grabbed his hands and started trying to pry them off his neck

"I remember you from Eggman's base. You're a spy." Sonic announced to everyone within earshot. Tails stood standing at Sonic gob smacked, he didn't know about this. Eric ran forwards towards Sonic in an attempt to stop him, but his run wavered and slowed down when he realised that if what Sonic said about him being from the base was true then he may well be a spy. Sonic released him and let him fall onto the ground, his feet almost buckling from beneath him, he immediately jumped backwards into a defensive stance.

"I am no such thing, I want to be rid of the disgusting fatso." Rage spat on the floor to the side in disgust. Sonic stared at him with dark eyes for a few second before jumping at Rage with insane speeds that Rage could barely see, let alone react to. Sonic delivers a furious round house kick to the gut, causing Rage to fly at the wall behind him at incredible speeds. The impact creates and loud bang that could only closely be described to a bomb with a high yield going off. Everyone in the immediate vicinity covered their ears with their hands, except Sonic who was too determined on walking towards Rage, and Rage because the impact left him in a lot of pain with a few broken bones, lolling on the floor. Sonic bends over and grabs his neck once more, picking him up and leaving limp feet dangling with empty, pained eyes looking into his own.

"I don't trust you." Sonic tightened his grip once again as Rage's hands raise slowly to weakly attempt to pull his arms off. "No one here ever will spy." Suddenly a flash of fur was seen out of the corner of everyone's eyes except Sonic's, who suddenly found a body ramming into him, forcing him to let go of Rage as he stumbled a fair few meters. Sonic's now stable body quickly whips round again to see whom would dare be the intruder. He looks into sapphire blue eyes which are full of loathing.

"This is not how a hero is suppose to act. Sonic." Slayde angrily muttered to Sonic, putting a lot of distaste and stress when saying Sonic's name. The vein on Sonic's temple pops out slightly as he looks at intruder on his plans.

"You. Acquaintance of the spy. I'll deal with you after, move out the way." Sonic shouts angrily at Slayde, who's standing in front of the body of Rage. Slayde looks at Sonic with strong distaste.

"Stop seeing enemies where there are none. The anger causing dark energy that flows with you is corrupting your mind and poisoning your thoughts." Slayde told him sternly with a bitterness in his voice. Suddenly Sonic charged at Slayde. Slayde's eyes flare open as he barely managed to avoid the fist for his face. As soon as that one missed Sonic flung another with his left hand, Slayde shifted backwards to avoid the reach of Sonic. Sonic was flinging a kick at Slayde before he even realised Sonic was attacking again. Slayde let his weight drop to the floor and the kick harmlessly flew over him. Sonic brought his foot down swiftly, intent on getting Slayde in the back of the head, luckily Slayde rolled over just in time to avoid. A slight, weak yellow aura was now visible round Slayde's form. Sonic starts going into a flurry of punches, Slayde tries talk to Sonic as he attacks, dodging in between each word. "Sonic. Calm. Down. I'm. Not. Your. Enemy." Sonic suddenly brings up a knee and Slayde barely notices it in time. As he doesn't have enough time Slayde blocks the attack with his arm, causing him to go flying backwards into the wall behind, the yellow aura clearly pouring out at the point of contact as a crash almost equal to that of the one made when Rage hit the wall was heard, causing everyone except the combatants to hold their ears in pain.

"You're annoyingly difficult to kill." Sonic announced angrily to Slayde. Slayde smirked at him as he got up from the fall after hitting the wall. Looking right into Sonic's once again hollow white eyes with amethyst purple ones.

"The strength that dark form gives you is incredible. If it wasn't for the fact we're on equal terms with speed and that I spent so long training in my human body I would have been long dead. I'm barely staying alive now." Slayde replied. Sonic looks at him with a dark look. Slayde's heavy breath could be heard quite audibly and was carrying over to the small group who were standing and staring at the battle. Sonic smirked and prepared to move in for the kill again. Eric could be heard talking to Tails at the side.

"Why is Sonic suddenly smirking?" He asks. Confused about what's going on.

"Slayde seems to be able to match Sonic with his speed but in destructive power he is dwarfed. Also Slayde seems to have nowhere near as much experience in fights as he is tiring so quickly." Tails replies to him, explaining. Slayde looks over at Tails for a brief second and Sonic takes it as an opportunity and jumps at Slayde, landing a punch directly into his jaw. Slayde slides across the ground scraping up a load of earth before catching a rock and flipping a couple times before landing expertly. Wobbling from a sudden wooziness caused by the punch he almost falls over. Sonic charges once again but Slayde manages to dodge this time. Sonic suddenly unleashed a spinning kick, connecting and, causing Slayde to go flying to the left in a daze, before he hit the ground however, he was caught by a blonde hedgehog and put down, not gently but not rough either. Slayde looked at the newcomer and, seeing the red strips on his quills, immediately knew that it was Shadow in his super form.

"I didn't expect to see you here." Slayde forced out while clambering up from the ground. Slayde looked at Sonic who was keeping a steady eye on Shadow, who was keeping a steady eye on Sonic.

"I could just leave again, if you'd prefer?" Shadow asked Slayde in a bemused voice, not moving his eyes away from Sonic. Slayde smirked.

"I'm not complaining. I could do with a break. I'm just wondering what brought you here." Slayde commented. A slight smirk was visible on Shadow's muzzle.

"Maybe the loud banging had something to do with it? I felt some strong negative energy fighting a positive energy of slightly weaker strength so I changed to this form and race ahead of Amy. I expected Sonic to go off the rails, but this was above my prediction... You should take Rage to the hospital and get yourself checked out while you're there. If you see Amy on the way there, point her in the right direction. If this ends up in a fight I want her to see this." Shadow spoke openly to Slayde, he suddenly tore his gaze off Sonic to look at Slayde. "Have we met before? Because I never get open to people by accident." Shadow asked, looking right into Slayde's still purple eyes.

"I don't know? Have we?" Slayde said, making it sound like a mind game. He chuckled slightly then winced and grabbed his side. "I should probably go to the hospital like ya said." Shadow smirked and quickly looked back at Sonic, Slayde quickly jogged as fast as his injuries would let him to go and pick up Rage to take him back into the city. Sonic noticed Slayde getting close to Rage and moved his attention to Slayde and started walking towards him. Shadow growled at him and got his attention back. Shadow shook his head and Sonic stood there staring at Shadow darkly. Slayde pulls Rage into a fireman's lift and jogs back to Shadow with him. "Thank you for your help Shadow." Slayde mutters to Shadow as he passes before going into a run that was far slower than normal towards the city.

"Why did you interfere Shadow?" Sonic snarled at Shadow, Shadow just sighed at Sonic and crossed his arms.

"Sonic you're being a fool. Release that form this instant." Shadow demanded in his usual calm manner. Sonic grunted with a dark glance.

"This is who I am now. Not even you can change that 'Ultimate Life Form'." Sonic sneered mockingly, attempting to aggravate Shadow into attacking him.

"You can't dwell on his death Sonic. You know this and yet you persist. These are not good times for mourning. Do it when it's over." Shadow lectured Sonic.

"Don't tell me what to do Shadow." Sonic growled back. Shadow crossed his arms in his trademark way and let off a famous smirk.

"I'll do what I want, faker." Shadow said cockily. Sonic eyes flared and then narrowed. He jumped at Shadow at full speed. Shadow, half expecting the sudden attack, swiftly dodged to the left and held his hand to his side "Chaos..!" Sonic whipped his body round in a nanosecond and threw up his hands to block the inevitable energy bolt. "Spear!" Shadow cast his yellow bolt of energy; sending it flying towards Sonic. A black surge of dark energy covered Sonic's hand and he deflected bolt to the side which proceeded to smash into the side of the wall. Before it had reached the wall however Sonic was, yet again on the offensive, throwing a punch at Shadow once more. Shadow parried the blow and tried to get in his own punch aiming for Sonic's gut. A quick back flip got Sonic out the way in time as the Chaos spear hit the side of the wall and caused a micro explosion. The two hedgehogs stood still, staring at each other with murderous intent. Tails just stared at the two and blinked. It had all happened in less than a second.

"What the fuck just happened?" Tails asked to no one in particular. Sonic and Shadow continued their glaring match at one another, Eric wearing an equally gob smacked look on his face. Seconds later a faint sonic boom was heard as Amy managed to join the fray.

"Slayde just told me where you were. What's going on?" Amy asked Tails, eyeing the two fighting hedgehogs. At the sound of Amy's voice Shadow looked round and, realising what he had done, snapped his head back round. Shadow's face met Sonic's fist and Shadow went flying backwards at incredible speed. He slowed down, using the power of his super form, by floating himself in the air and pushing energy backwards in a way similar to how the energy allowed them to fly. Shadows eyes wiped up again to scan for Sonic, alas Sonic was already upon him pointing his finger right at Shadows forehead. Instinctively Shadow knew what he was about to do and with all his might rammed into Sonic to prevent him from using his move. Sonic jumped back again but this time Shadow followed throwing a punch at Sonic head. Sonic's eyes widened in surprise and he move back from the left hook, to be caught on the nose. Sonic hand moved to his nose as he threw a kick at Shadow who promptly backed off and stared Sonic down. This time it took a whole second for the scene to unravel.

"I was just wondering that myself." Tails said after taking a blink. "Blink and you miss everything." Amy didn't seem to be paying attention however, and was carefully watching the two hedgehogs starting at each other. "At this rate there's going to be more staring than fighting." Tails chipped in again. Sonic finally moved his hand away from his nose to find the palm of his glove was soak in sticky red liquid. Sonic looked up at Shadow angrily.

"This is your fault!" Sonic growled, pointing at his nose. Shadow looked at Sonic in mock surprise and pointed at himself.

"Me? I don't recall, sorry." Shadow spoke in such a calm and assuring voice that if the Amy hadn't seen the punch with her own eyes she might have believed him. A quick glance at Tails and Eric confirmed that the fight was too fast for them; they believed Shadow and seemed to be confused as to where the sudden nose bleed had come from.

As suddenly as it started the nosebleed stopped and Sonic's nose slowly started to shift back into its proper position. Before it could heal however, Shadow was on the offensive. Throwing a flurry of punches and kicks that even Amy's eyes, which had been trained watching Shadow's speed, were struggling to keep up with. Sonic's quick reactions managed to save him from the first of the many attacks, but as Shadow increased the intensity of his attacks Sonic was forced to dodge at a faster rate than he ever had before. This took a toll on his nose and suddenly it was bleeding again. Some of the blood splashed into one of Sonic's eyes as he was dodging, suddenly impairing his sight and depth perception. Shadow immediately seized his change and threw a punch right into Sonic's right hand temple, as this was the side that the eye was impaired in. The results were immediate. Sonic flew into the side of the wall, allowing for yet another loud clang.

Shadow stood, arms folded and a smirk upon his muzzle, looking at Sonic as he slowly clambered up, clearly dazed and confused from the direct hit in the temple. Sonic stumbled, looked at Shadow hazily and fell to his knees. Then his eyes slowly fell shut as he face planted the ground. The dark pelt covering his body evaporated like black mist and Sonic was finally back to his cobalt blue trademark self.

"How come when he's gone unconscious now his state slips off and yet it doesn't when he goes to sleep!" Tails exclaimed, not really asking a question but just shouting in frustration. Shadow looked at him, panting, and then released his own form, going back to his ebony and red coat.

"Super forms are only released like that if it's a forced unconscious state. Something like sleeping isn't strong enough." Shadow said to him, still breathing heavily but loud enough for all to hear. Shadow turned to Sonic's body and appeared to be checking something before he picked Sonic up and walked up to Eric with him, plonking Sonic in his arms. "You and Tails need to take him to the hospital. His pulse is normal so he should be fine with a plenty of rest."

"But what about you?" Tails said as Eric started walking towards the city. Shadow folded his arms and looked at Tails as if he was stupid.

"I'm the ultimate life form. Why would I need medical help?" Shadow asked in his calm, smooth, honey coated with a hint of malice underneath voice. Tails looked at Shadow wide eyed.

"Um, good point." Tails mumbled and scuttled off after Eric. Amy walked up behind Shadow and giggled. Shadow turned round and raised an eyebrow at her questioningly.

"What?" Shadow said in a confused but bemused voice.

"You never change do you Shadow?" Amy asked him. Shadow shrugged, smirking. He'd finally caught his breath. Shadow looked up into the sky, Amy sighed. Shadow continued to stare into the sky impassively but Amy could tell he wanted to ask what was up. It was in his nature to remain impassive as Amy had learnt over the short weeks they'd been together. "That was a pretty impressive battle Shadow. I struggled to keep up with what was going on." Shadow turned round and looked at her intensely. Amy, who was now used to these looks, stood there waiting for him to reply, looking back into his eyes.

"Yes it was Rose. It was harder than I expected. Sonic seems to be better at fighting in his dark super form than he ever was in his super form." Shadow finally replied pensively. Looking slowly to the ground with an equal amount of thoughtfulness in his eyes.

"But wouldn't that mean…?" Amy's sentence trailed off as she looked at Shadow questioningly. Shadow turned and looked at Amy again with a grim look.

"It would mean that our dear _hero_ must be hiding more darkness than anyone realised. Where this darkness has come from I have no idea at all." Shadow finished Amy's sentence and answered her unasked question. Amy frowned, as if she had thought of something that burdened her, and turned away from Shadow.

"I might have an idea as to what it is, at least, it's the only thing Sonic has _ever_ talked about in contempt. He only ever spoke of it once to Tails, Tails told me about a year ago. Well I suppose it's more than that now, anyway. The way Tails described him was the final straw for me liking him. He was drunk mind you though." Amy trailed off, staring into space thoughtfully. Shadow stared at her in anticipation. After a few moments had passed Shadow was starting to get impatient.

"Yes?" Shadow hinted. Amy quickly looked at Shadow as if he had suddenly woken her from a deep dream. She blinked a couple of times before continuing.

"I think that it may be because he doesn't know where he came from. He has no real family and doesn't even know if any exists. He was simply raised by Hedgehogs who found him, apparently abandoned, somewhere in a forest." Amy told Shadow. Shadow stared into the air once more. He too knew too well what it was like not to know his parentage. Not to remember almost anything. Truth be told he hadn't really considered the fact he might have biological parents until Black Doom showed up and announced that Shadow was essentially the fruit of his loins. Shadow shuddered involuntarily at the thought.

"Well there's next to no chance of finding out now. Almost everything was completely annihilated. All records, when the Doctor took control." Shadow replied thoughtfully. Amy looked up at Shadow. Changing the subject from the depressing mood it was creating.

"That was a pretty amazing fight Shadow. I'm really glad I got to see most of it." Amy said to Shadow. Shadow snapped out his thoughts and back into reality. Then smirked at her.

"I wanted you to see it. I knew how much it could help you progress with your fighting style. Also I thought it'd help because no doubt, one day, you will be able to go to a super form. I just hope that it'll be for the right reasons, unlike how Sonic became Dark Super Sonic." Shadow looked at Amy, half amused, half curious. "Though who knows what lays in the future besides a select few?" Shadow said to Amy. Amy looked at him confused, frowning.

"But no one knows the future… Do they?" Amy questioned. Looking at Shadow interested. Shadow grinned.

"Some other time Amy. You're still learning." Shadow told her letting off one of those rare true smiles that just sucked you in. It was gone again like a flash. "Well shall we head back into the city? Or would you like to go into one of the forest areas now that you're getting stronger? It's the only place that the more wild creatures are still living in the radius of the city." Amy looked at him quite happy. He had just paid her two compliments in a row about her development.

"If you're up for it Shadow, I would love to go to the forest area. Which one though? Aren't there three?" Amy asked Shadow. Shadow grinned and pointed to the nearby forest that Amy knew was the biggest. Taking a full 6 kilometres from the wall towards the city and taking up almost the entire space between the North and East gates. Making the area of it about 122 kilometres squared, it provided most the oxygen for the city.

"Then let's go." Shadow announced, smirking before speeding off. Amy followed immediately behind.


	9. 08 Every City Has Something Illegal

_Every City Has Something Illegal__  
_

It took a long time for everyone who was hurt to recover after the incident at the gate. Slayde was the first up, suffering from not much more than exhaustion he was out in mere days. Rage was second to come out, being quite badly hurt it took him a few weeks to recover. Oddly however, Sonic still had not come out even though it had been two months. Having dark energy swirling round in his body for so long seemed to have had a devastating effect on the internal parts of his body, and although while the dark energy was there to spontaneously heal him, now it was not present his body had become weaker than it ever had.

"Slayde, get over here." Shadow bellowed over the crowd. Shadow had been searching for Slayde for almost a week now, as no one seemed to know where he disappeared to, not even that girl that he spent his nights with before he went on this 'wild fortnight' she called it. He was due back in another four days, but Shadow didn't want to wait. After six days of searching he managed to find him leaving a nearby restaurant. Slayde managed to push his way through the crowd to Shadow, whom was standing in an ally way that wasn't really travelled through.

"Yo, Shadow. Long time no see!" Slayde said to Shadow. Shadow stared at him with deep irritation. Slayde just grinned back at him. "What brings you over to this part of town then?" Slayde gestured to the area round him. Shadow did a brief look round, there was something unsettling about this area in the suburban parts. For a newish city it looked surprisingly... Run down and rough? Shadow didn't know whether it was simply because his mind was playing tricks on him or whether there was actually some dodgy shit going down in this area.

"I wanted to talk to you. Got a favour to ask." Shadow said begrudgingly. Slayde smiled at him and looked at him in a cheeky way.

"Well I do still have to pay you back for saving my ass against Sonic. What do you need?" Slayde asked politely. Shadow looked at him and frowned. It was obvious he didn't like asking for favours from others and even more obvious he had a slight dislike for Slayde ever since he accidentally ranted his inner thoughts to him. Shadow paused for a moment, as if thinking, before he spoke.

"I would like you to have a match with Rose." Shadow said simply. Slayde smirked. Shadow crossed his arms and frowned again. "What?"

"Just the one match? You don't want me to become a helping training partner?" Slayde asked. Shadow looked at Slayde confused and irritated. It was the very thing the Amy had said as well, but Shadow was unsure as to what Slayde's actual abilities were. Though they were obviously beneath his own but seemed to keep up quite well with Sonic's and with enough training could possibly surpass Sonic's simply because of Sonic's carefree attitude to any form of training. Slayde voice cut across his thoughts. "Besides, being round you could help me as well. I'd like to learn how to fight in this body again after that embarrassing loss."

"I'll see whether you can stay after the match with Rose." Shadow said in a calm smooth voice, taking back on his usual mannerism. Slayde beamed at him. Shadow rolled his eyes in response. "That means you probably _won't_ be staying." Slayde ears drooped and flattened against his head.

"When we going then?" Slayde asked dejectedly. Disappointment ringing in his voice.

"As soon as possible, we have to get past the city outskirts." Shadow said calmly, looking over for an easy route out.

"What the hell is she doing out there?!" Slayde asked in a surprised voice. Shadow folded his arms and frowned at him.

"My methods are of no concern of yours hedgehog." Shadow said harshly. Instead of the fear his voice normally instilled Shadow merely got a smirk back.

"How scary." Slayde expressed out his smirk making Shadow frown even more. Slayde laughed for a second. "I know the way out, follow me." Slayde said before shooting off. Shadow looked in his wake confused for a second before smirking himself. As if he was going to be beaten to the outskirts by a mortal life form.

Shadow and Slayde were neck and neck as they rushed towards the outskirts. Shadow on the left and Slayde on the right. They both turned their next left putting Slayde marginally in front by less than a meter (which isn't much when travelling near the speed of sound) Shadow, in a last ditch move, knew it wasn't going to work because they had been told it wouldn't. Logical thinking didn't stop instinct taking over however as Shadow shouted his trademark words. "Chaos control!" Suddenly colour evaporated from the area as everything slowed down with its colour inverting. Shadow was gob smacked to say the least as he quickly jogged to the outskirts, unsure how long it would last just as he got there, it cut out by itself. This confirmed the theory that it wouldn't last all that long. Slayde came shooting towards him and immediately began to slow down coming to a complete stop just in front of Shadow, looking confused to say the least.

"How did you get in front of me?" Slayde asked, utterly confused. Shadow didn't wholly know, Slayde had passed on Eric's message that Chaos control was useless within the walls of the city. Shadow decided he needed to investigate fully.

"Well you're just, so, slow you see." Shadow said in a 'isn't that the most obvious thing in the world' voice as they jogged towards the massive clump of trees. Slayde frowned at him.

"Meh, I used to be faster than you." Both Shadow and Slayde froze in their tracks and Shadow looked at Slayde.

"What's that meant to mean?" Shadow asked in a rather harsh tone. Slayde shook his head in confusion.

"I have no idea what made me say that." Slayde answered in a very confused voice, it was as if it wasn't even him speaking. They both started jogging again, but this time Shadow kept giving the occasional glance. "Truth be told I've been rapidly forgetting things since before I got my Hedgehog body back, I can barely remember my life as a human. All I've got left is the memories after leaving that room." Slayde said miserably. They continued to the forest and stopped right outside it. Shadow looked like he was about to go in when he turned to Slayde.

"You said 'Hedgehog body _back_' right?" Shadow asked. Slayde nodded and Shadow gave him an odd look before proceeding into the forest. Slayde followed right behind so he didn't get lost, not that getting lost was a problem, he just wouldn't be able to find Amy when alone. Several minutes of roaming through the undergrowth and they finally stumbled across a small clearing with a small brick hut in the centre. "This is the only safe area within the forest. I asked Rose to return here approximately hourly to check for my arrival." Shadow announced before sitting on the grass. With his legs crossed in a meditating position. Slayde sat next to him and watched him for what must have been fifteen minutes before movement was heard in the opposite direction. A pink hedgehog with quills much longer than usual that came up to her waist, in comparison to her shoulders as Slayde was used to, that looked surprisingly well kept, considering she was in a forest, came through a gap carrying a large fish that was about twice her size through the gap with her. Her clothes were torn and frayed, so much so that her entire belly was on view, in fact all that was really covering her top half was a piece of cloth cleverly wrapped round to cover her breasts completely, Slayde noticed that it glistened slightly with water, and her bottom half was covered in some rather mismatched trousers as the leg of it on one side came to just below her knee and on the other barely went down her thigh. Her appearance didn't seem to bother her in the slightest. Amy gasped as soon as she saw she had company and dropped the fish next to her.

"Shadow! You've been gone for like days!" She shouted as she jogged over. "I see you managed to find him then." Amy said cheerfully as she finally reached them. Seeing her closer her body seemed leaner than before, but the extra muscle did nothing to upset her attractiveness, a trait in most Mobian Hedgehogs (amongst other specie) especially females, and made her, if anything, _more_ attractive. She sat her down with her legs crossed in the exact same fashion as Shadow. Before turning to look at Slayde to talk to him. "How are you? I haven't seen you for ages!" Amy asked Slayde merrily.

"There's no need to be so nice to him Rose. He was a real pain to find." Shadow uttered as he analysed Amy, likely looking for evidence of progress. Amy pouted at him.

"I can ask my friends questions if I want." She said in a sweet innocent voice. Shadow frowned at her and let off his trademark 'Hmpf' before closing his eyes again. "So yeah, what you been doing? Last time I saw you was just in passing!" Shadow's eyes opened again at the change in question and looked at Slayde intently.

"Yes Slayde, what _have_ you been doing? I normally find people in a heartbeat unless they know how to avoid me." Shadow questioned Slayde, causing Slayde to almost retreat from the tone of his voice.

"Erm... Well I've been... round?" Slayde mumbled while twiddling his thumbs. A heavy glare from Shadow and an expectant look from Amy told him that his answer wasn't sufficient. Slayde frowned. "I've been exploring the _darker_ parts of the city, you know, the dodgy parts. Trying to find somewhere that excels in swordsmanship and armed combat. You two gave me the idea actually, with your hand to hand combat training." Shadow and Amy looked at each other and Amy sweat dropped while Shadow rolled his eyes at them both. "After a couple days I found this small area that seemed really dodgy, like a lot of hidden things were going on. It took me a while, but I managed to find a small underground club where a lot of people play for money... At the stake of their lives." Shadow chuckled slightly and Slayde looked at him in surprise and shock because he hadn't heard it before.

"Every city has _something_ illegal. Even at the end of the world." Expressed Shadow, amused. Slayde smirked at this too, where as Amy was frowning.

"Gambling with their lives? That seems incredibly reckless." Amy announced in disapproval. Slayde looked a little panicked.

"No no, it's not like _that_. I mean that when they do it they risk their lives because of the type of weapon used. Even in a fist fight you're risking your life because one blow to the correct pressure point could kill you, even if it is unlikely." Slayde replied in a quick save. Amy looked at him in a realisation.

"Ah, I get it now. Anyway, I was about to cook some fish." Amy pointed to the fish that she had dropped near the edge of the clearing before continuing. "Want to join me you two?" Amy asked sweetly before dashing next to the fish in a split second and picking it up like it was a feather and bringing it over.

"That sounds lovely Amy, thanks." Slayde replied. Shadow, who was still semi glaring at Slayde, replied differently.

"No thanks Rose. I'll pass." Shadow replied, once again taking his fiery lances off Slayde. Amy just stood there with one hand on her hip and the fish was on her shoulder in the other.

"I am not taking no for an answer off you Mr ultimate life form. You enjoy eating and this is healthy as you prefer." Amy practically ordered. Slayde sniggered as Shadow crossed his arms in a huff closing his eyes again as he let out another 'Hmpf'. She dumped the fish next to them and quickly went into the small brick hut, carrying some dry wood. Slayde looked at her questioningly and got an answer almost right away. "It's due to rain sometime today, so I stored some dry wood in the hut in case I need it." Slayde realised that it hadn't rained for a while, so she was probably right and instinctively looked up to see clouds. "You know Shadow, I've been wondering something." Amy announced as she bundled the wood together. Shadow opened his eyes again and looked at her.

"What you been wondering Rose?" Shadow asked as she continued to put the wood perfectly in place. Amy finished what she was doing before she turned round and gave her reply.

"I was wondering _why_ you don't have to eat. How does it work?" Amy asked. Shadow frowned before speaking.

"Well Rose, I don't actually kn-" Shadow started before he was interrupted.

"It's because his body takes excess Chaos energy, and because of how his cells work, allows the cells to run off that instead of glucose." Slayde spurted out like he was reading it right from a sheet. He then looked as confused as Shadow and Amy were looking at him. "I don't know how I know that. Maybe I used to be a GUN agent or something." This further baffled Amy as she had not been round of the earlier conversation. Shadow, however, shook his head.

"Only the scientists knew the more intricate details of my functional systems. GUN couldn't possibly have known that." Shadow replied looking bemused and if anything, slightly worried. Did Slayde know him before this? That would mean his hedgehog body would have to be at least in its early 30's which it didn't seem to be. But Mobians didn't grow old as obviously as humans did.

"Maybe I knew one of the scientists that worked on you? I'm sure some of them must have escaped the GUN assault." Shadow frowned further but nodded to this suggestion. Amy finally decided to rejoin the conversation.

"What's going on? What don't I know about?" Amy asked, bursting into both their distracted minds at once. Slayde looked at Shadow and Shadow looked at Slayde. Slayde smirked and shrugged causing Shadow to sigh.

"This isn't the first time Slayde here has been a hedgehog." Shadow breathed. Amy looked at Slayde completely gone out for a second before shrugging and returning to lighting the fire, a mumble later and a crackling fire was in place of the wood. "Amy you were meant to be lighting the fires with the flint I left behind. Who taught you that?" Amy just grinned at him before turning back to the fire and putting the fish on a massive spit roast that included two conveniently placed trees (that looked like they have been dug out recently), a long pole of wood that couldn't possibly have been made that smooth by nature (that incidentally had burn marks on it from possible previous spit roasts) and a long vine that seemed to be to allow Amy to turn it from a distance. All in all, a rather ridiculous contraption. "Amy, I'm waiting for your answer." Amy looked at him with innocent eyes before speaking in an incredibly cute voice while tapping her fingers together in an innocent way and pouting.

"Well I sort of experimented a little after I saw you light the fire without anything and found out that I could create a small amount of fire through my Chaos powers please don't be mad or anything I didn't do it to be naughty I was just curious and-"

"Okay okay, I get it. You're forgiven." Shadow uttered with irritation at the none stop no breathing talking. Amy swooped in and hugged him.

"Thank you Shadow." She sweetly whispered before planting one on his cheek and going back to cooking the fish. Shadow blushed and Slayde sniggered at him.

"Forget you saw that Hedgehog." Shadow recovered before Slayde had time to comment. Slayde's ears drooped cheekily as his grin stayed in place.

Many minutes later the fish was ready, Amy took it off of the spit roast, took out the pole and laid it down on a particularly grassy area before Amy started attempting to slice it up with a Bowie knife. Slayde rolled his eyes and stood up. "Amy, let me cut it." Amy looked taken aback at the offer before holding the Bowie knife out to him. Slayde shook his head to the Bowie knife.

"How do you plan on cutting it then?" Amy asked, Slayde walked up to the fish before clicking the fingers on his left hand a long glittering object appeared in his hand as he moved forward to supersonic speed that few could muster, stopping on the other side as the object disappeared in a flurry of sparkly particles, like glitter. The fish fell to pieces perfectly carved round the bone. "Um. Thanks Slayde." Amy responded to the spontaneous falling apart of the fish.

"You're welcome!" Slayde said as he walked round the fish with a sizeable chunk in his hands, he started munching on it happily. Amy threw a piece over to Shadow and grabbed her own piece before coming and sitting in a circle with the other two.

"I've only ever seen myself do that. I don't even know how it works myself." Amy announced generically. Shadow looked at her sort of gone out where as Slayde looked at her and nodded.

"Yeah, you do it with your Piko Piko hammer right?" Slayde asked and then paused to take a bite out his meat while Amy nodded. "It's called Chaos Closet. It allows you to store stuff in it to be summoned whenever you need it." He quickly took another bite. "This is good fish!" Slayde added as he chewed it.

"Thank you, I caught it myself." Amy replied and took a bite out of her slice. "I never activated anything though, can you explain that?" She asked before getting up to fetch another slice for them all.

"Well other people can place things inside your closet for you, even help add their own 'closet space' so you can store more stuff. The closet exists on a different plane of existence, which is why the 'loaning' of space can happen." Slayde informed before munching down on the new piece that Amy handed him, the fire that Amy had made was starting to get lower but was still providing a fair bit of warmth for them. "As far as I know every universe has the same one." Slayde commented before looking up from what he was eating to see Shadow's face full of interest. "What?"

"How do you know this stuff when I don't?" Shadow asked with meagre respect. Slayde just shrugged before walking off to grab more fish.

"Shadow?" Amy called, Shadow turned to look at her with his deep penetrating red globes. "Even you don't know it all do you?" She pointed out as she smirked. Shadow frowned and turned from her again.

"No one knows everything Rose, but I assure you, I shall know a lot about everything I can before I die." Shadow stated back. Amy's ears drooped and Shadow caught the movement out of the corner of his eyes. "I know you were only teasing Rose, I'm sorry. It's just... Unsettling having someone who seems to know more than me in certain aspects of Chaos." Slayde's voice floated over a second later.

"There's no fish left guys." As he walked up to them both, Shadow and Amy looked at each other, with a look that shouted 'that went far faster than usual', before turning to the approaching Slayde. "And Shadow." Shadow blinked at him in recognition. "I'm better at swordsmanship than you." Shadow just shrugged at that one, obviously without a care for that.

"So Slayde, have you come to train with me or just spar a couple times?" Amy asked, Shadow shot her a heavy glare which she just smiled sweetly at before continuing. "You can stay round if you want. Shadow isn't as bad a person as everyone thinks he just finds it hard to trust because of... Things that happened." Shadow reinforced his glare and Amy just smiled at him even sweeter. "Anyway, we owe you for giving us that start up money." Shadow's face bared a bit of recognition before showing defeat as he went back to folding his arms in irritation.

"Well I want to stick round for a while. This seems like quite a cool place to be to feel free." Slayde responded happily, suddenly the area went dark, as if something had blotted out the sun. Slayde looked up to see the sky covered in black cloud "Ah shit. Rain." He grunted in irritation. Amy and Shadow didn't seem perturbed at all however and Shadow gave a nod, as he stood, to Amy as Slayde looked at them both confused.

"Prepare yourself Slayde!" Amy shouted as she shot forward in an attack, throwing a fist at him. Slayde, whom was taken completely by surprise, had instincts take over and pushed her hand down with his right and hit her in the chin with the wrist of the same hand. Amy stumbled backwards and tripped over her own feet falling on to her arse. A tiny bit of blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth before she ninja jumped back onto her feet.

"Sorry! I acted on instinct! Didn't mean to hit you like that. Good thing I slowed it down at the last second!" Slayde explained in a hurry, Amy just smirked before spitting the blood on the ground and wiping her mouth.

"Nice hit Slayde." Amy exclaimed as she readied her stance once more. Both thinking things about the other. _'He slowed it down? That was as hard as Shadow normally hits me when I'm sparring with him. Just how close is he to Shadow?'_ Amy thought as she got into a fighting stance.

"Glad you're not angry." Slayde commented as he stood there staring at her. _'She's like a completely other person in battle, and what's she made of? Lead? My wrist stings!'_ Amy charged again, fist aloft ready to strike, as she moved in to hit Slayde shifted to the side allowing Amy's side to be open to him, Slayde placed his foot behind hers in the movement and used his right arm to trip her over backwards. Amy once again found herself on the ground, this time in a puddle, with an irritated look on her face. She quickly spun round and managed to take out one of Slayde legs, Slayde started to fall over backwards but used his arms to pull himself into a back flip and landed squarely on his feet. "You getting back up or is playing in the mud a hobby of yours?" Slayde teased as Amy rolled out the puddle and got up with a look like daggers on her face. She growled at Slayde making him smirk at her, Shadow however felt his stomach do a flip (earning it a glare from its owner) before immediately returning his attention back to the fight. "That supposed to be a purr?" Amy once again leapt forward to Slayde, this time in complete rage at the taunting, Slayde swiftly dodged to the side and took Amy out with a classic 'coat hanger' move simply because Amy was too enraged to notice such a simple move. She sighed in irritation before seeing Slayde hand stuck out above her. She took the hand and was immediately hoisted up. "You're good, but you let your anger get the better of you. Has Shadow not taught you to ignore taunts?"

"Well yes, he has. His taunts don't bother me anymore, I wasn't really expecting _you_ to start." Amy commented as she crossed her arms in a very Shadow like fashion. Slayde laughed at this, causing Amy to frown, furthering her image of looking like Shadow, which of course in turn made Slayde laugh even more. "What?" She demanded bluntly. Slayde stopped laughing and just smirked at her.

"Nothing to worry about Rose." Slayde reassured. Amy's arms fell open in shock as her frown melted.

"Only Shadow calls me that." Amy pointed out in shock. Slayde just shrugged.

"What's the point in a nickname if only one person uses it?" Slayde asked. Amy, realised she could think of nothing to counter this, shrugged back. "Do you even know why he calls you that?" Slayde asked out of the blue. Amy shrugged. "Fair enough." He mumbled.

"Hey Slayde." Shadow shouted over the sound of the rain. Slayde stuck his thumb up to say he had heard. "Could you please refrain from irritating my disciple? That's my job." Shadow commented as he smirked. Slayde smirked too.

"So he _does_ have a sense of humour." Slayde commented to Amy. Amy giggled at what Slayde said while Shadow smirked. "Starting to find me less irritating already Shadow?" Slayde asked. Shadow just shrugged for a reply and then Amy yawned. Shadow was the first to notice.

"Rose? Do you want to go to bed whilst it's dark? I know it's more natural for most Mobians." Shadow commented. Amy nodded at him and headed for the small hut, Shadow followed her to the doorway and turned round to see that Slayde hadn't moved, Shadow beckoned him. "Are you staying with us or not?" He added before going inside. Slayde smiled softly to himself before jogging into the door that Shadow left open and closed it behind him.

* * *

Rage stepped out the shower with soaked fur. A brief look round told him that he was the only one within the locker area. He grabbed a towel off a nearby hanger before drying himself. Rage had become more muscular, as if he had been putting himself through intensive training in order to try and become the strongest he could. He let off a long sigh before picking up some nearby thing that looked like a full body suit but had various pieces of metal in critical places, like the feet, hands, chest, pelvis and shoulders. He put it on before grabbing his black t-shirt and black jeans and putting them on. He stretched and then flipped what looked like a switch on the neck of his suit. Immediately Rage looked strained. He walked out of the shower room, much slower than usual, and headed for outside.

A familiar sight of tall metal walls that seemed to go on forever met him before he looked up. The clouds had once again almost completely consumed the area round the city, but the sun could still be seen shining on the top of the city barrier and the rain had not yet started. He stood next to a small building that was perhaps a hundred meters across by a hundred and twenty wide. It only had a single floor and could be lowered into the ground in case of an attack. It remained the only building outside of the city and was located on the south side. Fifty meters round it was covered in a sheet of metal half a meter thick that retracted under it when it was lowered. Next to it by only a few tens of meters was a tall tower with a square base about thirty meters wide, it was two hundred meters high and also retracted under the ground during invasion. The area was known as the toughest training area for the soldiers and Rage had managed to use his connections with Eric and Tails to get a place inside the coveted place that only allowed a few hundred trainees in its ranks.

He left his staring to go back inside and check out every ones progress. He re-entered through the doors that only opened to those who were wearing the suits he was and looked down the long corridor that went all the way to the other side of the building. Immediately to his left was the shower room to he had been in only a few moments ago. To his right he knew the bunks were located in a massive room where both male and female were held. No romance went on however, as one: Everyone here was more interested in fighting, two: No one wanted to be thrown out of this place and three: The room was far too crowded for anything of that kind to go on anyway… Although those reasons didn't stop everyone and that was how Rage's place was opened in the first place.

The building had many different rooms for various training. The most notable being the following rooms: The endurance room, a room where you had to run for hours until you could no longer run, this room used the percentage function of the suit. The skill room, a room where you could fight with warriors of all shapes and sizes to improve how to fight, this room used the level off, minimalist or percentage function of the suit. The Chaos room, a room where you had to constantly use Chaos techniques and nothing else or you'd be disqualified, this room also used the percentage function of the suit. The float room, a room which involved acrobatics and moving agilely in the air, this room also used the percentage function. And the weight room, this room was unique in the fact that it pushed you to your utmost limits and tactics against robots that had been salvaged and reprogrammed, this room used the minimalist function of the suit.

Rage remembered when he first arrived to the training building. He knew nothing of what to expect because few who had been had been allowed in the city. Most of the ones that had left the building permanently either died in battle or were outcast into the polluted wilderness. He remembered the strange vows he had to take before entering, which included telling no one about this strange suit that he had to wear in order to participate, and the odd tests on his Chaos energies, which also was about the suit.

The suit, advanced in technology beyond what Rage had seen, worked on a type of system that messed with gravity by draining the Chaos energy out of the person wearing it. As such, it trained the physical and Chaos sides of the body at once. And all the controls could be changed by a mere thought and a flicker of Chaos energy.

The way it messed with gravity was that it had a small control to it that could adjust the suits properties to do different things. As an example, the 'percentage' function of the suit allowed the user to set the gravitational pull that their body felt from the earth to be increased (Or even decreased) so that heavy training could be undertaken by doing very little. It's minimum setting was 10% (100% being normal) and its highest was dependant on how much Chaos energy you had, the current highest in use being 30000%, Rage was on 20000% when he first came and didn't like being beaten by someone so had trained harder than anyone and managed to get it up to 22000% in just a couple weeks. The second setting, dubbed the 'level off' function used the gravity functions to bring down the strongest of the fights down to a level that would be about half of the weaker ones strength, then made the suit of the weaker one match the same level. This was exceptionally useful for techniques because it forced everyone onto an equal playing field. Rage hadn't won a match in this room yet, as he had always relied on his brute strength and speed to win. The final function, dubbed the 'minimalist' function was a system that reduced your skills so dramatically you were essentially a normal Mobian. It was only used in one room indefinitely and the aim of this was to work in a small ops team to try and deactivate the robots without destroying them. This room was the largest and most important room in the area as a maximum of five people could enter at once. The suits could all be controlled automatically from a broadcast machine that the heads of the organisation kept in control. The rooms were all set up to force your suit into the correct rules once partners had been decided or as soon as you entered, depending on the room. The only room that used a percentage under 100% was the 'float' room. Which was designed to help soldiers get used to being able to move under less gravity if they so desired within the battle field, a skill which could become invaluable in attacking enemies that were far taller than average or for attacking aerial enemies, the downside being that if it was anything other than 100% or _normal_ it used Chaos energy to maintain.

Rage continued to walk down the corridor as people walked in the opposite direction, most likely to the shower room or the bunks. He nodded to a few he recognised as they walked past to have a similar gesture returned. After walking right to the end of the corridor he went into the weight room. It was far less crowded than it usually was, but Rage looked up at the clock on instinct and was greeted by the time was expected to see 03:00HT It seemed the majority of the people who were training here had their body clocks synchronised with true time area of this piece of land. Some were stubborn however, like himself, and didn't like fitting in. He spotted the queue waiting to go in the room once the previous team had finished and was pleased to see that there were only four people in the queue, meaning that he could go in right away. What annoyed him however...

"Hey Rage!" A girly female child shouted. Rage's eyes rested on the one person who he had really gotten to be irritated with. A small four year old girl, with clear light blue eyes, mostly black fur but with purple and red alternating stripes down her quills. Despite her age she already had several piercings in her ears and wore a black shirt with a custom purple logo on it, a red and black skirt coming just above her knees and purply/pink and black leather boots, her biological age had definitely been accelerated as she looked like she was in her early teens.

"What do you want Prosha?" Rage sputtered bluntly. Prosha looked at him in a very irritated way.

"That's not how you greet someone! Say something nicer for once!" She demanded of the Hedgehog who just looked at her and sweat dropped while she waved her arms in an animé like style.

"Nice to see you again Prosha." Rage breathed in order to shut her up. Prosha smiled and her eyes lit up. Rage sighed in annoyance. _'I don't know whether to love or hate this girl'_ he thought as she pulled him into the queue.

"Are you going in the weight room then? I presume that's why you're here!" She demanded of him. Rage tried to smile at her, which ended up as a grimace, and nodded. "Great! We'll be going in together then! You should go into the skill room with me again! I enjoy kicking your butt!" Prosha beamed at him once again and Rage looked at her with as much irritation as he could fathom.

"I'll beat you soon, mark my words." Rage announced in a loud voice, everyone in the room looked at him like he was crazy. Prosha just smiled at him sweetly.

"I doubt that. My mother made these suits before passing away, so I was the guinea pig and haven't took it off for longer than a shower since!" Prosha put on her puppy dog eyes to Rage which forced him to turn away because he couldn't reject them. "Pweeeeeeeease twain with mwe!" Prosha pleaded in her cutest voice.

"Fine! I'll train with you. Now stop bothering me." Rage growled at her. Prosha started to tear up so Rage scooped her into his arms and had to struggle due to the weight she was from the effect of the suit. "Don't cry, you know that bothers me." Prosha just smiled as she put her little arms round him.

"Arigato onii-chan" Prosha mumbled into Rage's fur. Rage blushed marginally before responding.

"For the last time I am not your brother." Rage muttered quietly in a happy embarrassment. The group that were in the room came out just at that moment, the first one whistled. A yellow hedgehog by the name of Dash walked out, he was about sixteen and wore nothing but his training suit and a pair of fully white shoes. He greatly reminded Rage of Sonic with his cocky attitude, but was a bit meaner about it.

"Look, wimpo and shortie are trying to start a love affair!" Dash laughed to his mates behind him. Rage was over in a flash pinning him against a wall.

"Care to say that again, I didn't quite hear you." Rage roared at Dash, Dash smirked at him as Rage felt two hands on each of his shoulders before he was thrown backwards into the wall behind, forcing him to let go of Dash. Rage got up and growled at the two that had thrown him back. One was a blue Echidna with purple eyes who had also taken up to wearing just his suit with white Shoes and a green hedgehog that looked oddly like Sonic but with aquamarine blue eyes whom always wore red sunglasses, a leather jacket as well as green and black shoes. The Echidna cracked his knuckles threateningly while smirking. The other two that had come out of the room with them had cleared off as fast as they could while the three who had been waiting had rushed inside, out the waiting area of the room. Everyone was scared of Dash's gang.

"Hiiyahhhhhhh!" Screamed Prosha as she jump kicked the Echidna in the nose causing him to stumbled. His hand whipped to his nose as he held it with angry eyes. Quickly looking at it he noticed it was bleeding.

"You bitch! You'll pay for that!" He growled as he moved towards her to punch her while the other two were laughing at him. Rage shot in front of Prosha and shielded her with his body as the Echidna rained down with punches. "What you want to take it for her? I'll give you double for being a peado." He yelled as he pummelled the hell out of Rage's back. Suddenly the beating stopped as a grey wolf had grabbed his arm. The Echidna swung his other fist at the wolf but this time the green hedgehog grabbed his arm. The blue Echidna shook them both off before talking. "Awhh, Scourge I was having fun."

"You don't want to be thrown out, do you? Come on. We're _leaving_." Scourge announced as he followed Dash out the room, the Echidna turned round and looked at them after his gang was out of earshot and no one could see.

"Just you wait wimpo. Wait 'til no one can hear you screaming." He announced as the doors to the room closed.

"Onii-chan, onii-chan!" Prosha shouted as she shook the barely conscious form of the hedgehog. Rage groaned and pushed her hand off before making his way up slowly.

"I'm fine brat. Get inside the room." He mumbled as the grey wolf helped him to his feet allowing Rage to start walking to the room. The wolf had already gone ahead.

"Onii-chan?" Prosha questioned. Rage looked at her with soft eyes that betrayed caring. "Arigato onii-chan." She exclaimed. Rage's face hinted a smile at her before he quickly turned his head and headed into the room with Prosha right in toe looking at him expectantly.

The second the two got inside the doors they shut to seal them in as five life forms were inside and the effect of the suits were almost instant, Prosha stopped bounding round and started walking properly and Rage, due to his injuries, fell to his knee before recovering his stature. The room was full of various obstacles of both natural and metal man made ones. The area was as complete for cover as anywhere would be simply to try and encourage you to learn how to make your way through something without alerting the main system.

A small area opened hear the door to reveal 5 miniature headsets ready for use, each with their own military letter and a second after the five had all secured the headsets to their ears, a beeping sound was heard followed by a female voice saying "Level one" within the earpieces to indicate that the room had activated. Robots were suddenly heard not too far off nearby moving round. The five Mobians moved behind various cover as fast as their weighed down bodies would carry them.

"Alpha, do you have a view of the target." Rage whispered into the microphone as he peaked round the corner to try see something, the room was dark due to the settings of the room and, Rage saw nothing in front of him except from the grey male Wolf in front of him.

"That's a negative Charlie, does anyone have a visual?" A smooth male voice came over from the microphone. "Does anyone have a visual on any targets?" He questioned.

"There's one of the ones that shoots right behind you Alpha, on the other side of the rock that you looked round, and I can see another one about 5 meters behind that." Announced Prosha quiet loudly, Rage wondered how she could have seen that and turned to see her sitting in a tree.

"Okay Beta, moving in, be my eyes." Alpha murmured as he crept forwards. He hid inside a bush as the robot started walking.

"It's coming right at you, if you time this right you can get him without the other one noticing." Prosha announced. Rage peaked round the corner again and saw the aforementioned robot and the Wolf's tail poking out the back of the bush, he rolled his eyes before creeping the long way round to the robot further back. "Okay, now!" Prosha uttered and the Wolf leapt out to the unsuspecting robots back. A second later he had shorted it out with a weak bolt of Chaos energy to a weak point of the circuitry. A clatter was heard followed immediately by another clatter. The team looked up to see Rage standing behind a toppled robot. "Rage you need to stop going ahead! This is a team mission!" Prosha scolded. Rage stuck his finger up at her. "Rage you're so mean!" Rage smirked and stuck his tongue out before diving behind cover because another robot had come to see what the noise was. The robot walked blindly forwards until it's foot tapped the edge of it fallen comrade and it started to look down slowly, Rage jumped out of hiding and delivered the stunning blow before wiping sweat off his brow.

"That was close." Rage stated. The wolf sighed on the microphone.

"That was reckless Rage! We almost lost the mission because of that! Don't do it again!" Prosha demanded over the microphone. Rage sighed and smirked to himself before moving forwards through the room.

"Delta, Echo. You not saying anything?" The wolf commented over the microphone.

"Well we haven't been told what to do-" Delta started in a deep voice.

"So what you're saying is you can't think for yourself?" Rage interrupted before he finished. The two none participating members, one a male cat and one a female cat, of the part blush heavily. The two of them, in some sort of effort to prove themselves, started blundering forward, the fatal mistake, their blundering caused them to knock into a fair few things and a few seconds later buzzing was heard in the air. Followed by a scream and a running Prosha from the source. Rage looked up to see a swarm of bees attacking the two Cats in a flurry, Rage chuckled before he was glomped over onto the floor as squealing Prosha ran to him for protection. He put his hand on her head and stroked her hair like quills to comfort her before sitting her aside and walking over to the two Cats covered in bee stings. Suddenly an alarm went off inside the room meaning that they'd been spotted. The robot standing next to them deactivating itself due to protocol. "You blundering idiots. My advice? Next time you _should_ wait for orders." Rage thundered as he released weak waves of Chaos energy towards the bees which immediately caused them to calm down and return to their hive.

The five of them exited the room, two in embarrassment and three in irritation. As soon as the lot of them had exited the room the two Cats scurried off down the hall leaving Rage and Prosha walking with the unknown wolf that had helped out Rage. Each of them flexed various parts of their bodies now that they weren't under much strain and Rage yawned. "What's your name Wolfie~kun." The wolf scowled at Prosha and looked up to see Rage glaring at him for his reaction towards Prosha. His face softened but the look in his eyes remained.

"My name is Alpha, yes I know ironic; I always pick up that microphone on purpose." Alpha replied with a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Alphie~kun! Want to go to the skill room with me~? Fighting Rage is getting boring because he always loses." A small vein popped up in the Wolfs temple.

"If I beat you then do you promise to stop calling me self made nicknames and ~kun?" Alpha stated with deep irritation obvious in his voice.

"Prosha promises! If Prosha wins however, you must become Rage's and my friend!" Prosha shouted happily before skipping down the corridor towards one of the skill rooms. Alpha nudged Rage slightly and Rage looked at him with loathing eyes.

"What?" Rage stated bluntly. The wolf seemed taken aback from the tone back asked his question anyway.

"You were going easy on her and letting her win those matches right?" The wolf muttered with a hint of worry in his voice. The hedgehog grinned.

"I fought my hardest and haven't beaten her once. Watch out for her flying kicks, and her butterfly kick is particularly good." Rage announced with a smirk. The Wolf let a hint of worry betray him. "Bet you're wishing that you didn't bet on the game now eh? I did the exact same thing when I first arrived. Surprised you haven't ran into her before..." Rage pondered and looked at him curiously.

"Well two reasons, one being that I've only been here a few weeks and the second being that this is the first night I've been awake this late, I was set to sleep the same times as the masses." Alpha commented before Prosha suddenly reappeared.

"Are you guys coming or are you just going to stand there nattering like old women all night?" Prosha questioned before running back to the room happily. Rage smirked at Alpha whom shrugged before they started speed walking towards where Prosha was running.

"Here we are." Rage commented pointing inside the room to where Prosha was standing inside a small dome that looked like it was made of some sort of blue plastic. It was about 10 by 10 meters and the material caused you to bounce off it without damage. Alpha entered the area and faced her.

"Percentage or level off?" Prosha asked as her hands hovered over the functional command pad. Alpha knew full well that the level off function was better for weaker one when the two had large gaps in power. The percentage function was mostly there for battles between friends when they didn't want to over exert themselves.

"Percentage." Alpha muttered, if he was going to beat this girl then he had to try and make sure that he had the upper hand.

"Okay! We'll set it at what? 15000%?" Prosha announced as she fiddled with some controls at the far end of the board.

'_15000?! What's this girl made of?! Muscle?! At least that'll weaken her aerial attacks...'_ Alpha nodded before hearing a slapping sound by the side of the fighting area, he turned to see that Rage had face palmed himself. Apparently he had made a bad decision. He felt the weight on him suddenly pick up before it reached its peak. He struggled to move under this more than he was expecting as his normal training was only fourteen thousand.

"Okay, normal rules. First to be knocked down three times loses, no time limit. Ready? Steady. Go!" Prosha shouted just as the Wolf managed to compose himself, an agile small bolt of a hedgehog managed to get a butterfly kick straight into the side of his head making him fall into the wall and consequently to the floor. Alpha quickly got himself back up.

"Okay, I wasn't expecting that. You'll need to try much harder than that to hit me again." Alpha retorted before composing his guard. This little hedgehog had more bonuses over him then he realised now that he thought about it; lower centre of gravity, less frame to carry and also to be hit on.

"Here I come!" Shouted Prosha as she dashed in again, throwing a spinning hook kick at Alpha's chest due to the size difference. The wolf blocked it which still caused him to have to shift his stance before throwing a weakened punch at Prosha, Prosha simply spun to avoid his hit and hit him in the head with a flying roundhouse. The force was too much for the wolf who was forced to use the wall force balance, leaving him open for a low spinning sweep kick from Prosha which knocked him over once again. He got up slower this time, growling at her. Prosha beamed at him before doing a back flip to let him return to a stance. She looked at him with mischievous eyes that spoke of deeper knowledge than a four year old normally had, not that Alpha would realise she was that young. Alpha could tell that she had practiced hand to hand combat techniques for most her life, if not all of it. Also her strength and stamina were impossible for her age, only years of exposure to the suit could have caused such an odd girl. Alpha was awoken abruptly from his day dream as he was kneed in the chest. The blow winded him and made him fall to his knee, luckily for him the chest or back had to hit the ground to count as a down. He shot up with an uppercut and managed to finally get contact on Prosha which made her fall immediately. The girl obviously still wasn't very good at taking hits despite her strength due to her young age. A flicker of hope appeared in his eyes at that moment. If he just got in two maybe three more hits he would win. Prosha did a backwards roll and flipped backwards from her shoulders landing in a perfect stance. Immediately she leaped and Alpha was hit by another flying roundhouse. The wolf staggered but, by placing his hand on the floor before he fell, managed to avoid losing. He quickly tried his previous technique, but this time Prosha back flipped to avoid it, catching Alpha's face with her feet as she did, he staggered into the wall behind him and fell flat on his face before growling.

"How did I lose so easily?" Alpha asked. Prosha appeared above him, hand held out even though it wouldn't do much good because of their obvious difference in size.

"Because you learn to fight for no real reason and I learn to fight to protect all those I care about. Because I could not save father, or mother." Prosha expressed with sorrow. The young grey male looked shocked at her words before he realised they were true, why was he learning to fight? For his clan. But was that enough?

Alpha stood up and exited the sparing area with Prosha, meeting up once again with Rage. "You got your ass handed to you." He stated to the wolf. Alpha growled at him before turning to Prosha.

"A youngling of your talents would be welcomed into my clan with open arms." Alpha told her sincerely as they walked out the door into the corridor.

"And what clan would that be? The weak wolves union?" Rage retorted, Alpha growled at him dangerously and extended his claws. "Oooo, am I supposed to be scared? Because I'm quivering in my boots!" Rage mocked, the wolf went to deliver a flying tackle to Rage as Prosha screamed.

"Guys stop this at once! You're always so competitive." Prosha shouted at them both. Both of them looked at her in confusion for a second then sweat dropped before looking at each other and shrugging. Suddenly an alarm went off, all three of them looked over head. The alarm was only meant to go off if Robotnik was invading... The three of them ran off towards the exit of the building where everyone in the other rooms were also heading out to.

* * *

Where was he? It was like he was floating, but he wasn't. He couldn't tell up from down and left from right, it was just never ending darkness, yet it wasn't darkness. It felt unexplainable and seemed impossible unless you had experienced it yourself. His vision suddenly blurred with images and ears buzzed with murmurings, before it once again faded away. More falling, or floating for a more precise word. Suddenly the images became clear, but it was all too jumbled up for him to tell what was going on. It was as if he was standing in every place in the world and yet not at the same time. He had to try and block some of them out. No sooner than he had thought this the noise started to quieten, the images became less muddled. Suddenly just one was left it was the perfect picture of a barracks kip room most the beds were tidy except for one which one of two people in the room was tidying, it took him a while to realise that the two people were talking.

"Have you heard?" The red Fox asked as she tidied her bed, she was standing in military gear with the insignia of a private.

"Heard about what?" A purple Racoon asked as he cleaned the floor, he was in a janitors outfit and had a mop in hand.

"The new head of the offensive army!" She uttered in a whisper as if she knew that she was being overheard.

"Ah him, yeah I've heard about him." He left it short as continued to mop a stain that looked suspiciously like blood.

"I've heard that he uses dark Chaos. What is someone like that doing at the head of our army? He could be in cooperation with the tyrant of evil himself!" Exclaimed the Fox, forgetting to keep her hushed tone.

"You should be more careful of accusing people of things. Don't forget why you're a private for the third time." The Racoon warned as he stopped his mopping. The invisible floating figure over head smiled until the Racoon continued in a whisper. "But I have to say, this time I agree with you. He seems like a shady character. I don't care if our saviour Tails knows him personally, something isn't quite right."

Suddenly a noise was heard as someone else entered the barracks, both Mobians quickly returned to their jobs as the image faded and distorted, turning into a different scene within a steely environment. He could only guess that it was part of the military building as he had only been to the top floor in Tails' office so far. He was floating along with a pair, both in uniform both with a captain insignia. These two were also talking.

"I'm not looking forward to the hedgehog waking up. I've heard rumours..." A tall black male Dog whispered. The grey Wolf next to him frowned.

"We're not supposed to discuss rumours within the chain of command. You know that." The grey Wolf stated. The male Dog took his turn to frown.

"I know, but I've seen the proof with my own eyes. He was black before and now he is blue. He's obviously using some kind of dark Chaos. Now, I know that Tail's himself has vouched for him, but what if it was a clever ploy laid out by Robotnik?" The Dog started the Wolf interrupted.

"But still-" The Wolf started. But the Dog started ranting yet again.

"No wait, listen. You have a son right? Alpha? He's just joined that outer ring right? Do you really want someone like that leading your son if he transfers?" The Dog uttered excitedly. The Wolf just sighed.

"_If_ he transfers and by the time my son would be in the main division of the army this new commander may have died or left." The wolf answered cleverly. The Dog looked at him with an irritated look and opened his mouth. "And I'm not answering any more questions, we're late as it is."

They entered a room as everything muddled up again, this time he found himself on a bed, he tried to move but found that all the limbs he had were like fiery lead. He tried to gasp from the sudden feeling but found that he had an air mask on, he laid there, for what seemed like forever before his hearing slowly came back, and the white fogginess faded from his eyes. He still couldn't move any limbs, but the burning had long since receded. He could make out voices standing just nearby him.

"It's an incredible specimen. This parasite, whatever the cause, seems to attack not just organic things, but feeds off metals and plastics too. It's more like a substantial living organism. If it wasn't for this special type of glass that was mixed with Chaosanium it'd be eating the city piece by piece." A female voice gasped in the distance.

"I'm amazed that he survived for so long with it inside him. I wonder how long it truly was there for though. From what we can guess it was in there for a few months." A male voice growled in a hushed voice from not too far away.

"A few months?! But that would mean that it was in there before he even went inside that room!" The familiar voice of Tails waved across making Sonic force his eyes open to see the back of Tails and a male doctor nearby plus a female doctor standing at the door.

"I know, if he wouldn't have been frozen in time like that… Five years ago we didn't have the technology and know how to treat such things… He may have... He would have died." The male doctor mumbled thoughtatively Tails looked visually disturbed by this piece of information. Sonic let out a groan and all three of them suddenly hushed. The female doctor scooted off down the hallway before the door closed and took her out of sight.

"Sonic! Can you hear me?" Tails asked excitedly. Sonic nodded meekly as his body wasn't fully working. Things spun round in his head like they were spinning like a merry go round. Tails shouted in glee and the doctor came and pushed Sonic back to the bed and started prodding him in certain places.

"Does that hurt at all?" The doctor asked. Sonic shook his head meekly and flexed his hands.

"I can't move very well." Sonic stated, blinking a few times while looking at Tails.

"That would probably be the effects of both the drugs and the damage done to your body by the parasite you had living inside you. It was a formidable creature that we've only been able to deal with for a year at the most." The doctor announced as he stood up. "Now I have other patients to see to, so if you don't mind I shall be taking my leave. Make sure he stays in bed." And with that he closed the door on the two.

"What happened?" Sonic asked in a dazed gone out voice. Tails looked at him sympathetically.

"Well Sonic, when your dark energies stopped. Your body went into a deep shock that was surprising for the amount of damage you had took. Whilst we was moving you to the hospital everyone was quick to assume that the dark powers you were controlling did this to you. That rumour spread like wildfire for the first week of which you were out until the doctors realised you were getting worse rather than better. Upon a quick scan they found a small parasitic insect in you, better known as 'the black bug' and immediately started taking measures to remove it. They told me if they hadn't found it for another 5 days it would have caused irreparable damage. The odd thing is. They told me that normally people die after having this bug in them about 28 days. But it's been 3 months since you came out of that room and who knows when you got it? It must have been before you went in that room! The parasite is extinct now!"

"So I would have died if it wasn't for Robotnik?" Sonic asked looking into Tails' eyes.

"Ironically. Yes you would." Tails replied solemnly. Sonic looked gob smacked, before he could recover, Tails started talking again. "I really need to go, city to run and everything. Duality has been running the army whilst you've been out of action. I hope that you're up and ready soon. I'll come by tomorrow." Tails announced as he walked out the room.

"Tails wait! I need to tell you something..." Sonic started, but Tails was already out of the room. Sonic sighed and pulled himself up slowly as the door closed, he could see a nurses hand just before it finished closing he gave himself half an hour-ish before they came to check on him. He didn't like hospitals, they were too unnatural and didn't have enough space for his liking. He took in a deep breath and pushed himself to his feet. Sonic walked towards the window at a crawls pace and looked outside before peering down, his eyes almost popped out his head as he noticed he was a couple miles up. _Damn it. I was going to jump out, but seems they thought of that. If I jumped in my current condition I'd be unconscious long enough for someone to bring me in from outside._ Sonic thought before something bulky caught the corner of his eye and caused him to turn his head. His face lit up as he saw a swinging stage without a window cleaner on it just a window across. His hands fumbled for a lock as he continued to keep his eyes on the swinging stage his hand caught one and lifted it up. The window was open! His eyes quickly scanned for his stuff. He saw none of his clothes but his shoes and gloves were on the bedside cabinet. _I used to run round in just those, this should be fine._ He quickly put them on and hopped onto the window ledge. He realised the swinging stage had a balcony next to it and that it was right on the corner, he quickly jumped. Gravity took hold and he started falling before he meant to. He missed it completely and started to fall. Sonic swung out an arm and just managed to grab the bottom with his left hand. He immediately slipped slightly because he was right handed. Hurriedly he pulled his right arm up to stabilise himself. Climbing up the railing with just his arms like it was a ladder and pulled himself over onto the platform but keeping hold of the top ring causing him to do a flip onto his back. He laid there for a second breathing heavily, adrenaline pumping through his body from his near fall. Sonic stood up with his vision being slightly blurry and hit the down button. Nothing happened. "Shit!" Sonic looked up and saw a balcony far above him and a strange metal thing that looked like the wires were attached to it, it looked like it wasn't one of the whole of the building. He looked down and confirmed his theory because there was another lot of the strange metal things. He carefully jumped down onto them and scanned for the wires holding up the swinging stage. He saw them and noticed that the stage was all the way at the bottom and rolled his eyes and sighed. He hung off the bars and started abseiling down the metallic rope.

As soon as he reached the second swinging stage he realised that he wasn't near the ground. Luckily for him the final one he would need to take was only just beneath him. He back flipped, having got his feel for aerobatics back, and grabbed the railing on the fall down, quickly pulling himself over and hitting the down switch. The thing moved surprisingly fast and Sonic had made it to the first floor in no time. He quickly jumped onto the balcony and then off it into a side street next to the hospital. Suddenly he realised there was shouting by the entrance "So you didn't see him pass here?" A female voice shouted.

"No ma'am. Ain't been no blue hedgehog through here in the past ten minutes. Last one I remember would be 'alf an hour ago." A male voice replied. Sonic grew a cold sweat realising they were talking about him.

"Well if he comes past here we need him back up. He's been out for a long time and we don't know whether he's stable in mind yet." The women voice muttered, Sonic didn't know how he picked up the sound until he turned round to see a female Echidna, adorned in a black tank top and black jeans, holding a strange box with a speaker and microphone on it.

"Interesting." The brown Echidna observed while staring at Sonic. Sonic's eyes popped open _All that just to have my cover blown by a chick?!_ He thought before quickly moving round her and covering her mouth.

"Don't say anything abou..." Sonic suddenly found himself on his back, the Echidna had just grabbed his arm and flipped him like a burger. He received a heavy stare.

"I wasn't going to. Try thinking before you act." She retorted as she wiped herself off. "So you're Sonic huh?" She asked once she was done. Sonic scrambled to his feet.

"Uh. Yeah. If you don't mind me asking... Who the hell are you?" Sonic questioned. The Echidna laughed at him.

"I'm your ticket out of here." She announced. "I love hospitals about as much as what you seem to." Sonic looked at her gob smacked, he opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it. Then he gave her a confused look as he closed it once more. The Echidna just ignored his apparent confusion. "This alleyway leads to a manhole that we can get to the sewer through. It'll make an easy escape route." With that announced she made her way over to the sewer system and pulled off the manhole like it was made of feathers before back flipping down. "Are you coming or what?" Her voice emanated from the small hole. Sonic shrugged and jumped down.

The fall was longer than he expected and when he landed his legs buckled and slipped out from underneath him. A quick arm under his armpit prevented him from falling however. "Um. Thanks." Sonic mumbled bashfully as he regained his footing. The Echidna just nodded in acknowledgement before setting off down one of the many paths that the sewers held.

"Try not to get lost. You could be here for days." She announced as she walked. Sonic quickly scurried to get behind her and walked at her pace. Several minutes they were walking until she spoke up again. "I supposed you haven't eaten much for the past few days?" The Echidna questioned as they walked. As if on cue Sonic's stomach grumbled. She giggled slightly before pulling something out of a pack that appeared out of nowhere. "Here." She urged. "Eat this." Sonic looked at the large chunk of baguette in her hand and took it gingerly before taking a bite.

"Hey, this is pretty good!" Sonic announced as he started taking chunks out of it like a ravenous rabbit, it was gone within seconds. "Do you have anymore?" The Echidna smirked at him before pulling an even larger baguette out of her bag and threw it to him. "Thanks!" Sonic half shouted as he caught it and started tearing that one apart too. By the time Sonic looked back up the bag had disappeared again. As she had just fed him he decided to keep his curiosity at bay, but the only person he knew who could pull things out of thin air was Amy.

What seemed like hours passed by where they were just walking along in the pathways in the sewers. Suddenly the Echidna stopped. "Okay, this ladder here will lead us into a small secret underground area in the roughest area in town. Let me do all the talking if you don't want to get messed up." She commanded as she started climbing. Sonic looked slightly scared at the sort of place that they were going into and gulped before following her up the ladder. The Echidna was already out of the hole above by the time he started climbing so he started climbing faster. As soon as he got his head inside he was greeted by a bright light blinding him.

"This the one?" A burly voice asked Sonic couldn't see where the voice came from but the response was almost immediate which made him thankful.

"Yeah, he's the one." The voice of the female Echidna announced the light was took out his eyes before Sonic was suddenly pulled out of the small hole by the scruff of his neck. Sonic's eyes quickly adjusted to see a very tall human holding him up and examining him. After what seemed like ages Sonic was finally put down and the human turned to his saviour.

"He passes. You best not bring someone in unannounced again or you'll be docked pay." The human growled before leaving through a door that lead further into the building. The Echidna woman turned to Sonic and looked at him sternly as if properly looking at him for the first time. She then turned and made her way to the door.

"So then Sonic, my name is Terra. Know anything about the damno exemplar?" Terra questioned as she closed the door and the lights went out.

* * *

"Slayde?" A whisper pierced the gentle pitter patter of the calming rain like an arrow. Slayde's eyes shot open and he turned himself round to see Shadow just centimetres away from him causing him to shoot back. Shadow smirked at him.

"What?" Slayde harshly whispered back, heart pounding from the sudden scare. "And what the hell were you doing behind me that close anyway?" He continued his heated whisper, Amy stirred not too far away, causing Slayde to whip his hand silently to his mouth, and then groaned slightly in her sleep before making clicking noises with her mouth and turning over before she begun snoring.

"I was going to ask if you were awake, but you turned round instead of answering. I'm close because this place is barely big enough for two Hedgehogs let alone three." Shadow calmly whispered back.

"Also known as: The great Shadow the Hedgehog is afraid of being too close to a female when she's asleep." Shadow scowled at him and Slayde smirked.

"I feel no such thing Hedgehog. I am unafraid to be in the presence of a woman." Shadow stated bluntly in a whisper, folding his arms. Slayde smirked at this.

"Ah, so it's just Rose then." Slayde countered quietly. Shadow growled causing Amy to shift in her sleep again. Slayde sniggered at Shadow

"I suggest you shut up." Shadow muttered with flickers of rage in his eyes. Slayde smirked at him and stood up to stretch.

"I suggest you don't make me jump when I first get up." Slayde said before walking to the door and peering through a small crack outside. "The rains almost stopped." Slayde murmured in a statement before beckoning Shadow outside Slayde yawned before opening the door swiftly and closing it gently behind him. Shadow stood up and followed suit to ensure that he would not disturb Amy. "Why did you want see if I was awake." Slayde asked in his usual voice with the hint of a growl as he walked over to a specific area on the edge of the clearing. A few seconds later and he was back carrying a couple of apples. Slayde tossed one at Shadow who caught it without even so much as blinking.

"I needed to talk." Shadow stated. Slayde frowned and opened his mouth to speak, but Shadow answered his unasked question. "Away from Rose." Slayde looked taken aback by that statement but didn't question it as Shadow suspected he would.

"What did you want to talk about Shadow?" Slayde asked while staring off towards the hut, thinking about what Shadow didn't want Amy to hear.

"What are you hiding?" Shadow questioned bluntly while his eyes scoured Slayde for any hint of a lie on his tongue or deceit in his eyes. Slayde blinked at him a couple of times before taking a bite of his apple. He crunched on it noisily as Shadow continued to glare at him analytically. He swallowed piece of apple and shrugged.

"Nothing." Slayde announced as he continued to look at Shadow blankly before taking another bite of his apple. Shadow looked highly irritated with his answer.

"Stop shitting with me." Shadow growled but with a calm look on his face. Slayde just shrugged at him. "Fine then. Fight with me. I'll read your heart." Shadow closed his eyes and his fur started to move as if he was in high wind, a second later a yellow-white glow was coming from him he opened his eyes and stared right at Slayde before dashing for him. _"Chaos control."_ Shadow shouted as he soared towards Slayde, grabbing him by the shoulders just as it activated and they both disappeared in a green flash. Amy, who had just came outside to see what the commotion was about saw them both vanish and stared at the spot with her mouth hanging open before running out of the forest and towards the city as fast as she could muster.

Slayde tumbled into a load of soft loam from the currently pouring rain, coating his fur with filth. He stood back up slowly and briefly took in his surroundings. The usual metal wall that went on forever, however they curved away from him rather than towards him, one careful look confirmed what he suspected. "How did you manage to get us outside?" Slayde indicated the walls as he asked, Shadow smirked at him.

"Maybe I'll tell you if you beat me?" Shadow announced as he watched Slayde. Truth be told he had no idea that what he wanted to do would work. To be precise it didn't because he wanted to go about ten times further away than they did. They were only three kilometres from their original position. One from the wall.

"Fine, I'll show you the power of pride." Slayde stated as his eyes turned purple and his coat started to turn a silvery yellow, the dirt flew off him like it was water. Shadow looked taken aback and confused by that statement.

"What do you mean by that?" Shadow questioned. Slayde looked at him as if he wasn't being serious for a few seconds before laughing.

"You're serious aren't you? Then I shall tell you if you beat me." Slayde announced, smiling with deep smugness set on his face. Shadow brow furrowed before he dived and swung a right hook at Slayde at incredible speeds. Slayde caught the fist with his left and there was a loud noise upon the impact which was comparable to a clap of thunder. The rain changed direction and pelted Slayde for a few seconds, before stopping completely, from the speed of which Shadow moved, but he did not blink and looked shadow right in the eyes. Shadow growled slightly and threw his left fist at Slayde, Slayde blocked it with his right hand but the hit still got through and caused Slayde to go flying backwards a few meters and land on his back. He was back on his feet in seconds again though and smirking.

"What's so funny?" Shadow asked in irritation, folding his arms. Slayde laughed at that and folded his as well, but in a loose aloof manner.

"I forgot that you throw a mean left straight. Two of the minority right here." Slayde announced. Shadow didn't look at all impressed.

"So you're also left handed?" Shadow asked in disgust. Slayde nodded and waved with his left hand. "I should have realised earlier, the way you wielded that sword..." There was silence from a second before Shadow shouted. _"Chaos Ray!"_ Slayde eyes widened as Shadow's hand came swinging round and the palm pointed at him. He quickly clicked his fingers before he was drowned in the bright light of Shadow's continuous beam of Chaos energy, after a few seconds Shadow released the beam and stood there for a moment waiting for the smoke to clear, his breathing had increased by a small amount due to the sudden use of a large amount of Chaos energy. The wind suddenly blew to reveal Slayde, sword in hand, blade glowing from being used as a shield. "Now that's an impressive blade you have there." Shadow commented, Slayde smirked at him.

"Why thank you. It's made from an alloy that includes the same metal that wall is made of and small crystals grown from a Chaos Emerald." Slayde announced as he ran his finger along the pattern on the top of the blade of his sword. Slayde closed his eyes, took in a deep breath and exhaled. His eyes snapped open and he dived at Shadow with his sword, Shadow ducked to avoid the swing and went to punch Slayde in the chest just to be stopped by a small black blade with similar markings to the first. It vanished in a dissipation of sparkles and the larger blade came swinging at him faster than he could avoid. Shadow caught it between his two hands and tried to pull it away. The attempt was a success and the blade went flying out into the distance. Shadow's guard was weak due to the removing of Slayde's weapon and Slayde managed to throw a punch right into his gut causing Shadow to fly back and do a back flip to land on his feet, holding his stomach from being slightly winded. Slayde chuckled and clicked his fingers causing his sword to reappear in his hands. Shadow looked at the sword gob smacked.

"How?..." Shadow trailed off. Slayde's eyes glinted.

"Did you forget what I said about Chaos Closet already?" Slayde commented smugly. It was obviously a rhetorical question. "Well take this as your practical lesson!" Slayde shouted as he dived for the irritated hedgehog. Shadow dodged the incoming blow by flying up into the air. Slayde followed, travelling through the wet rain and freezing clouds until they were both above the clouds, the sun started to evaporate the rain that was clinging to their respective fur almost instantly.

"It's quite warm up here." Shadow commented conversationally. Slayde smirked at him, eyes glowing from the sun light coming directly into them.

"Yes it is, positively toasty." Slayde looked up to see the very pale blue sky. "We must be very high up, close to space." Shadow looked at him analytically with wide eyes.

"Did you say... Space?" Shadow questioned in an unearthly voice. Slayde looked at him and nodded slowly. "Then we could be near ARK?" Shadow trailed the statement off to sound like a question as he looked up to try and see if he could locate the orbiting space colony. Slayde however was looking at Shadow with fully wide eyes, blank and wild.

"ARK?" Slayde mumbled before clutching his head in pain. His breathing became erratic and his pupils starts to spasm with contracting and relaxing. "ARK..." Slayde breathed as his eyes rolled backwards and his super form released itself, Slayde started plummeting towards Mobius and Shadow suddenly snapped out of his thoughts before chasing after his falling body. Slayde had picked up quite a bit of speed by the time that Shadow started moving, but it didn't take too long to catch up, however, the closer he got the faster Slayde got, and the harder it was to catch up. Shadow saw the ground fast approaching and put on an extra spurt of speed, he managed to grab Slayde's hand and started to slow them down as rapidly as he'd dare risk. He knew that Amy would be on his case if he didn't save him, and he wasn't really the kind of person to just let someone die anyway. Shadow quickly used Chaos control to teleport his way inside and found himself much closer to the wall than he intended to be. He quickly adjusted Slayde into a fireman's lift and ran back through the forest to the location of the hut. Upon entry he found it completely empty.

"Oh, where has she gone now?" Shadow growled exasperatedly. He put Slayde down onto the floor and ran out of the building and headed towards the city. It seemed like the most likely place she would go.

* * *

Amy hit the button on the elevator, thoroughly bewildered as to why there was such a lack of security. The elevator shot upwards and she tapped her foot impatiently. Suddenly a robotic voice was heard.

"Please insert valid identification into the slot under the floor panel. If you do not oblige within the next five seconds this unit will cease functionality." Amy glared at the speaker before folding her arms.

"Ah shit." Amy muttered. So much for no security. The elevator suddenly powered down and stayed still. Amy sighed and unfolded her arms. "I suppose it's about time I tested myself." Amy announced to herself as she cracked her knuckles. She jammed her hands in between the two doors and begun pulling it open, it took more effort than Amy expected it to, but compared to how strong she was before it was relatively easy.

She found herself in a room that seemed to expand for the entire length and width of the floor, not to mention the fact that it seemed to consume about five floors and was absolutely covered in thin woodland. "What's a place like this doing in here?" Amy commented before she looked over to the other side of the building to see an elevator, she started walking right away towards the elevator, but it flickered. Stopping Amy in her tracks. "What the fuck?" She cried as the elevator door vanished into thin air right in front of her eyes. Suddenly slots in the walls opened up and multiple white flying robots came streaking out towards her. Amy immediately readied herself into defensive position and as the two closest came flying at her from either side. She jumped up in a back flip to avoid the two robots and they slammed into each other, causing them to explode. Amy activated her homing attack and attacked the nearest few robots by slamming them into hitting others. She landed on the floor and did a quick scan in case any more robots were heading towards her to see that the remaining ones were all watching her movements. One of the robots looked different from the others as it was black and went towards one of the other robots, when they got close to each other they suddenly deformed and reformed as a more humanoid robot that came shooting at her with a left hook. Amy grabbed the arm and spun the robot round and threw him across the room into a bunch of other robots who exploded on impact with the big one. The big robot however stood up and although he was sparking from everywhere on his body did a good job. The robot held its arms out and all of the broken parts of the destroyed robots nearby to it shot to it and started to form on it, repairing it and making it look more powerful.

"Attack." The transformed robot commanded while pointing at Amy. All of the robots suddenly swarmed at her. Amy jumped to her left and delivered a side kick to one robot making it crash into the one next to it before using the momentum of the kick to grab another robot and threw it into a group of others. Before side flipping, landing on her arm, throwing herself up with that arm and grabbing two robots, smashing them into each other and throwing the remains at another incoming group. Amy then did a front flip to do a drop kick on a nearby robot that smashed into the ground before landing right on top of it. She once again scanned the area and saw that there were only about ten robots left, including the mysterious black robot. "Sequence Alpha 3 Beta. Attack." The robot commanded. The robots swarmed at her, but seemed to keep their distance rather than coming right at her. Amy charged at one of them but it just floated above the reach of the attack, that is before she jumped into the air and threw it into the ceiling. She landed to see all of the robots trying to avoid her again.

"That's odd. Either they're scared or..." Amy looked round to the black robot to see it reforming with multiple pieces of different robots scattered all over the floor. "Or they're trying to distract me! Shit!" Amy shouted as she quickly dashed over to stop the robot mid form. Suddenly all the remaining robots swarmed in her way. She immediately punched one of them and sent it flying into the far wall. Before round house kicking the robot next to it. She tried to get to the still forming robot but got rammed in the side by one of the weak ones that pushed her away from it. She growled at the robot and held on of her hands by her side. "This might not be as powerful as Shadow's, but god it will sting. _Chaos spear!_" A bolt of dark orange energy shot at the robot that was forming, but another smaller robot shot in the way and exploded on contact with the bolt. Amy growled again, but this time in frustration. "_Chaos... Spear!_" Amy bellowed, shooting several bolts scattered towards the reforming robot. The six remaining robots shot after them to try and stop them, but it was in vain as each of them blocked one and sacrificed themselves. The final unopposed bold headed towards the transforming robot whom suddenly held up its hand and snuffed it out as if it was nothing more than a candle in a gale. The robot ceased its transformation and stood up. The robot had gone from looking barely human at all to looking an almost perfect replica of Amy, minus the fact that it was black and she was pink; and that the robot had glowing red LED eyes.

"Impressive for an imperfect humanoid." The robot Amy commented casually in a voice not unsimilar to her own while looking at her robotic newly formed streamline body. "Better than any that have come before." The robotic Amy announced as her head snapped up to look Amy right into her eyes. "Shall we dance?" The robot questioned. Amy took up confidence in her skills and dashed forwards at the doppelgänger swinging her fist right into the robots chest. The robot remained unmoved. "Is that really the best you could do?" The doppelgänger punched Amy in the stomach and caused her to go flying backwards before falling onto her back some ten meters away from where she was hit.

"What was with that hit?" Amy asked no one in particular before pushing herself back up and looking right at her doppelgänger. "_Chaos spear!_" Amy shouted once again, but put the power of seven Chaos bolts into one. The bolt shot right at the robot who had the right mind to dodge it, it shot right past the intended target and smashed into the wall in the distance, which once again flickered to reveal the elevator door. "What's going on here?" She asked the robot. The robot looked at her in confusion.

"It would seem you are also the first person who has come here that does not know where they are. Oh my. Many firsts today. I must thank you for coming though. You are the most impressive Mobian that has entered my walls. I shall not forget your form. Nor your power." The robot announced before Amy once again stood up and got into her fighting form. "Ready?" Amy nodded before the robot soared at her faster than the speed she was used to fight against she swiftly dodged the punch and snuck round the robot to kick her in the back the robot staggered slightly but quickly spun round and delivered a devastating blow of a kick the her chest making her once again sail across the room. Amy got up faster this time however, her hair like quills were gently shifting from side to side as if in a light breeze.

"You shall tell me. Whether you want to or not." Amy growled as she jumped for the robot faster than before. Delivering a strong blow directly into the palm of the robot Amy's hand. The robot skidded backwards a mater or two before coming to a stop.

"That's more like what I copied." The robot sneered before throwing its own punch at Amy's head. Amy parried it, grabbed the arm and threw the robot on its back. Amy sent her foot crashing down right at the robots face to find that the robot had rolled over. The doppelgänger, quick to notice that Amy was merely on one leg quickly delivered a sweep kick taking out Amy's other leg and forcing her to the ground. Amy quickly threw a distraction punch at the robot so that she could get herself back up quickly, but the robot saw through it and slapped it away as they both leaped up. "You pass." The robot announced as she tilted her head.

"What the hell are you on about?" Amy asked before the woodland suddenly started to disappear. She looked round alarmed as the elevator doors suddenly reappeared and a small building on the edge of the wall that Amy was sure wasn't there before became visible. Amy could hear voices coming from the shack and two Mobians came out. One seemed very angry and the other seemed very thunder shocked.

"How did she get up here? And why is she in by herself? And what the fuck is she wearing?!" A grey Wolf shouted at the timid looking red Fox. Amy noticed that the new metallic version of herself had not disappeared with the rest of the room and they both turned to the two approaching Mobians.

"Yes, but look at these-" The Fox started, before he was once again interrupted by the grey Wolf.

"And why hasn't 'C H four M three one three oh N' changed back to its original form yet? Look there's a crack over there on that wall, that'll have to be repaired." Suddenly he stopped in his tracks. "Wait that's pretty good." He announced. The robot Amy faked a yawn which caused the real Amy to giggle.

"Would you just listen to me already!" The red Fox shouted at him. He looked at the fox taken aback.

"All you had to do was ask." The grey Wolf commented, causing the Fox to sigh in exasperation and the two Amy's to snigger.

"I _did _ask. You really need to pay attention to people." The Fox lectured. The Wolf stood there and nodded which the Fox knew was an indication to go on. "She just cleared out a platoon level, solo. A _platoon_ level."

"What? Why didn't you reduce the difficulty setting to squad?" The grey Wolf commented. "It's a great risk putting someone against a mission like that alone. Especially when they are unarmed and female." A little vein appeared on Amy's forehead at that, and the robot Amy didn't look at all happy either.

"What was that you said about females?" Amy demanded as she cracked her knuckles threateningly. The Wolf looked over at her, then the robot, then back to her again and gulped, hard.

"This conversation doesn't concern you?" He squeaked in a small voice. Amy clicked her fingers and her piko piko hammer appeared.

"Wrong answer." Amy announced as she brought it crashing down at his feet, leaving a hole in the floor. "Care to re-evaluate your answer?" Amy asked in a maliciously sweet voice not unlike Shadow's.

"I implied that females are weak." The Wolf replied in a quiet squeaky voice. Amy released her hammer and folded her arms with a smirk upon her muzzle.

"I need to get me one of them." The robotic Amy commented at Amy's now vanished hammer. The Fox was gawping at Amy like she was from another planet.

"Do you think I could go now?" Amy asked. The Fox suddenly came to his senses.

"Sorry, it's just no one's ever shut him up before. Not even his own wife." The Fox revealed, taking a side glance to the Wolf looking down at his feet. "I wanted to ask you if you're a part of the army, and if not are you here to sign up? We could really do with someone like you..."

"As flattering as that is, I'm sorry but I can't. I have to get back to my sensei. First however, I really need to find Tails and talk to him. Where is he?" Amy enquired. The Fox looked disappointed and sad at the same time.

"He's on the top floor but it'll be difficult to get in because he's guarded by some of the best machinery we got. Make sure you state your purpose to the secretary, you may be waiting a couple of hours though. Tails has been very busy as of late." The Fox informed. "If you ever change your mind ask for a General Hunt." Amy smiled at him and started to leave, just to hear metallic footsteps behind her. The Wolf found his voice again.

"Get here and change back right now." The Wolf shouted at the robot. Amy turned as the robot turned to him and stuck her middle finger up.

"Make me bitch." She announced before she carried on walking. "You know full well that there are only a handful of people in this army stronger than Amy, and all of them are busy. So what you going to do about it?"

"I could deactivate you." The wolf announced as he pulled a remote out of his pocket.

"You wouldn't." The robot Amy gasped.

"I would." The Wolf announced as he held his finger above the button. Suddenly a mid shade orange bolt collided with the controller and blew it up. The Wolf shook his hand because it had been burnt from the small blast.

"You won't." Amy announced. She turned to her doppelgänger "Live how you want. Not how others force you to be. It took me a long time to realise that. So I shall give you that opportunity." The robotic Amy smiled at Amy and then turned back to the Wolf to stick her middle finger up once more before following Amy into the lift and the doors shut behind them. "So what are you going to do?"

"I have no idea. I didn't plan this far ahead. If I had a heart it'd be pounding... Wait I do feel a pounding in my chest..." The robot felt her chest. "I'll never get used to this whole changing thing."

"Well do you have a name?" Amy asked merrily. The robot shook her head. "Oh God! Not even a name! Erm... Well you look like me. So presuming you stay like that I can share my last name Rose?"

"That would be amazing. Just like having a sister. Would help me feel more Mobian." The robot Rose replied.

"Okay, first name. We could call you Black, because Black Rose sounds cool. Oh the good old days when I day dreamed of being called that." Amy started to blush. "Oops, that was meant to be a secret. Erm. How about Ebony? It's a name that isn't all that unusual. And 'Ebony Rose' still sounds quite cool!"

"Sounds good sister." Ebony Rose responded with a smile. "What is it that you want to talk to the creator about?" Ebony Rose asked Amy.

"Erm, something to do with Chaos Control. If you want to feel and seem more Mobian you should try loosening up the way you speak. Like try using slang, use apostrophe words like can't and shouldn't. Also don't refer to people as Creator. Just call him Tails, even if he did make you I'm sure he won't mind." Amy instructed Ebony Rose.

Suddenly the elevator doors opened to reveal A door a bit further on with what looked like an eye scanner. There was a small desk to the far left but no receptionist there. Amy walked up to the desk and rang the bell on it. A few seconds later an oversized Lioness came out and sat down on the chair that creaked. "Name?" She asked.

"Amy Rose." Amy announced the receptionist did some things on her computer before turning back to Amy and talking.

"You don't have an appointment." She stated rather bluntly.

"I don't need one. Send my name through, you'll see." The woman did a few things on the keyboard before standing up, indicating some chairs and heading back into the room she was in when Amy first arrived.

"I bet she's stuffing her face in there." Ebony Rose commented to Amy. Amy giggled and looked towards the door. The Lioness came back through a few seconds later with a tint of red on her cheeks and sat down in her chair. Apparently she had heard what Ebony said.

"Amy? Is that really you?" Tails voice came across from a small speaker next to the door. Amy quickly rushed next to the speaker with Ebony immediately behind her.

"Yes Tails it's me. I really need to talk to you about something important. Can you let me in please?" Amy requested through what looked like a small microphone beneath the speaker that was in the wall. Suddenly the door opened and Tails popped out his head.

"Amy! It's so good to see you!" Tails announced as he walked up and hugged her. "And who's your friend?" Tails asked in a sociable way.

"This is Ebony Rose. You may recognise her." Amy replied as they pulled out of the hug.

"No... It can't be!" Tails announced as he looked at Ebony properly. "You've grown up! I'm proud." Tails announced to her. Ebony looked so happy that she could cry, if she could cry. "Where are my manners! Come in, come in!" Tails indicated the inside of his workshop. There were devices of all kinds scattered across the place that looked like they were meant for various important things. "Speaking of you... Erm. Ebony, I know that you can mimic things on an atomic level, but you cannot create things very easily without being shown it first. In my research for synthetic limbs etc I accidentally stumbled across this." Tails held up a sheet of what looked like perfectly ordinary black fur. "It's made of the same metal alloy that you are comprised of Ebony. Instead of looking shiny and robotic like you can duplicate this and make yourself look like you have fur!" Tails finished as Ebony just stared at the material as if unsure whether she could trust it or not. Amy reached out her hand and stroked it.

"Wow. That feels just like real fur. Tails that's dead impressive." Amy commented as Ebony reached out and touched it. The fur dematerialised and reappeared on Ebony completely covering her in the right places. He inner ears and muzzle were still shiny however, and so were the metallic replicated clothes. "Ebony, can you dull the metal you have? If you do that on the parts without fur it'll look more natural. There may not be many hedgehogs with black muzzle fur instead of peach but there are some, so it would not be too out there. I don't know what to suggest about your ears though, you could do the same I guess. Or make shorter fur for your muzzle. Oh, and lose the metal clothes. I have some spares." Amy clicked her fingers and the spare clothes that she had put in her Chaos closet right after going in the hut appeared. Amy handed her the dark purple jeans and a royal blue t-shirt. Ebony concentrated and all her metallic clothes suddenly disappeared leaving her completely stark naked in front of Tails who's eyes popped open and his nose started to bleed before he quickly turned round with his eyes closed to allow Ebony to change. "She's done Tails."

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking. Mobians normally have a complex with modesty don't they?" Ebony announced awkwardly. She had taken the advice of Amy and dulled the metal inside her ears and grown a small amount of what looked like black muzzle fur on her muzzle. If it wasn't for her LED eyes she's look like a normal Mobian. Tails suddenly rushed of and opened a nearby cupboard.

"Oh where did I put them?" Tails asked himself as the two just stood and watched him.

"Put what Tails?" Amy asked while looking and Ebony. The two giggled with each other.

"You'll see when I- Aha! Found it." Tails stood up with something that looked oddly like Mobian eyes. "They're more prototypes than anything, I haven't been able to get them to interact with organic materiel the way I want them too yet." He pointed at his own damaged eye. "But they should work on someone who is robotic. Configure them into your system." Tails suggested as he stood there placing them in Ebony's hands.

"Look away, this won't look at all normal." The two obeyed and heard some off metallic noises. "Okay you can look again now." They looked round and saw Ebony who looked like a perfectly normal Mobian with purple eyes and black muzzle fur.

"So what was it that you wanted to talk to me about Amy?" Tails asked, Amy looked at him blankly before blinking a couple times.

"Oh yeah, I forgot with all this. I needed to ask you about Chaos Control. Shadow used it, but we were told that it couldn't be used in this city. What's going on?" Amy questioned, obvious worry on her face.

"Ah, well you see. It's not that it isn't possible to use Chaos control inside this area. It's just that we've placed effects into measure that makes it so it takes ten times as much power. Chaos control, as you know, is a power that requires so much energy that most need an Emerald to activate and use it. For a normal person to use it is hard, but when the power of what is needed is upped by tenfold with makes it so very very few people can use it indeed. Shadow can probably still use it because of his extreme amount of energy. But if he wants to go ten miles he'd had to visualise going one hundred, which I'm sure is difficult even for him." Tails explained. Amy nodded in understanding. "Which is why everyone says that it's impossible."

"So does that apply to just Chaos control? Or all Chaos powers?" Amy quizzed. She wanted to fully understand this places barrier so that she could do a better job at training.

"Well to be precise it does it to all Chaos powers, including the form changing ones. So those that can almost reach them in here. Could probably reach them outside the wall." Tails comment bashfully.

"That could be why he did. He took Slayde outside with him. Slayde was close to super form when fighting Sonic and Shadow noticed that. So if Shadow worked this out for himself. Oh god! That means Slayde's probably fighting him right now!" Amy shouted. Tails dashed over to a door at the side and went through it, returning about a minute later. You're right, there's been two massive powers resonating about a kilometre away from the wall, it was causing disruption to the barrier. They flew upwards and only one came back down, the larger of the two. Before disappearing completely..." Tails informed before trailing off and looking at Amy worried.

"Damn that Hedgehog! He always takes things too far without meaning to!" Amy stood up sharply and made for the door before Tails spoke up.

"If you find Shadow, pass him on the message that there are multiple threats heading towards the Eagles base." Tails requested. Amy nodded and smiled at him before starting for the door again. "Bye bye Amy, hope I see you soon."

"Laters Tails." Amy replied before exiting the door. Ebony hopped up and made of the door after her.

"I hope I get to see you again sometime!" Ebony announced before dashing out the door after her. Ebony found that the elevator was already there for them and that Amy was already inside pressing the button. She quickly jumped inside and hummed to herself merrily while Amy pushed the button.

Due to the fact that this particular lift couldn't be accessed when someone activated it, as it _was_ the only one that could up to the top floor to see Tails, the two made it down in no time. The receptionist smiled at them both as they walked out, getting Ebony excited.

"Calm down. Now how fast can you move?" Amy asked Ebony thoughtfully. Ebony stood there and thought about it before coming back with a predictable answer.

"About as fast as you I guess." Ebony replied, clearly confused towards the situation. Amy nodded before crouching.

"Do what I do." She commanded before jumping up to a fair was up the building and performing a triangle jump across the buildings as skilfully as she could. Ebony followed and they were well on their way... Until something crashed into Amy causing her to tumble into the masses beneath and knock a few people over. She looked round for what she bumped into and saw a small impression of people not unlike hers not too far away. "Oi you, watch where you're going you... Shadow?" People had moved out the way to show a very pissed off looking black and red Hedgehog. Shadow looked up and saw Amy, his angry vanished immediately.

"Amy!" Shadow shouted in a pleased voice that he'd been able to find her. Then he remembered why he had to find her and his anger came swimming back. "Why did you leave the hut! When I got back I was worried that you'd been eaten in your sleep!" Shadow scolded. Amy laid down her ears in a hurt expression.

"But but but." Amy started, though Shadow interrupted.

"No buts, that's what goats do. Who's this you have here anyway?" Shadow ended his rant abruptly and became calm instantly, as always. Ebony had just jumped down and joined the two.

"Hi I'm Ebony Rose." Ebony held her hand out in curtsey.

"Charmed." Announced Shadow abruptly while looking at the hand as if it were a bomb. Ebony looked sad and dropped her hand slowly; Amy rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry Ebony, he's like that with everyone." Amy comforted while Shadow stood there with his arms folded.

"He's not like it with you." Ebony pointed out. Shadow's cheeks went so slightly red that neither of the two noticed so he quickly turned his back to the both of them.

"Well that's because I've known him for a long time, even if I don't know him well yet." Amy replied, looking over to Shadow and feeling mystified as to why he had turned his back on them both. Suddenly she remembered something. "Shadow. What have you done with Slayde?" Amy growled a little harsher than intended. Shadow looked at her surprised.

"How did you know I'd done anything with him?" Shadow asked, surprised by both Amy's knowledge and tone.

"I saw you Chaos Controlling the two of you off. And I heard from Tails that there was a battle with two massive Chaos forces and that the weaker one didn't come back down. What did you do?" Amy asked sternly, looking right into Shadow's eyes as she knew he couldn't lie very easily if she did.

"I did nothing! He just passed out halfway in between our battle, was pretty annoyingly actually. We were on even terms because of that damnable sword he has. Best one on one I've had since prison island..." Shadow trailed off as he went into what looked like a wander down memory lane.

"So where is he Shadow?" Amy asked. Shadow blinked a couple times and shook his head.

"I took him back to the hut." Shadow stated. "But I need to go talk to Tails to confirm if some of my theories are true."

"If it's about Chaos, I've been told pretty much everything about it, I'll explain it to you on the way back to Slayde. If it's not satisfactory _then_ go." Amy commented as she started walking with Shadow right next to her, already explaining away.

Several minutes later Amy had explained and they were inside the forest heading towards the hut. "So does that clear it up for you Shadow? I've told you everything he's told me." Amy told him as she moved a large branch out of the way. It flicked back and hit Ebony in the face and knocked her over. No one noticed however because she was at the back.

"Yeah, that was what I had guessed from the extra strain I've had using everything Chaos all this time. Plus the distance I travelled with Chaos Control." Shadow replied as they entered the clearing. Amy looked back and stopped walking. "What's up?" Shadow asked as he turned. "Where's that... Girl that was with you?"

"Shit, she got lost in the forest. I don't know whether I should go looking for her or go and make sure Slayde is okay." Amy worried. Suddenly shuffling was heard and Ebony came though into the clearing looking a little scratched up.

"I can see why you've been in here training now." She announced as she brushed herself off. "I came up against one of those bear looking things." Shadow looked impressed where as Amy looked concerned. "I'm fine, I'm fine." She announced looking at Amy. Amy quickly turned and jogged towards the hut and opened the door. Slayde was on the floor mumbling in some strange language. Amy kneeled and put her hand on his pulse.

"His pulse is fine. What language is that?"Amy asked as she positioned herself to heal him.

"I don't know... Wait a second. That last word he said was Black Arms for kill. How does he know that?" Shadow asked bewildered.

"This is getting to weird. Chaos heal." Amy shouted. Slayde frowned and suddenly sat bolt upright.

"Whutsgoinon?" Slayde mumbled at he looked round wildly while breathing heavily. He laid back down again. "It was just a dream. Thank god." Slayde looked different, his fur had grown slightly and was more rugged and his gloves had disappeared from his hands. His eyes looked like they held more pain than they ever had before. Most notable he had somehow acquired a three long scars striped over his left eye that looked oddly like a claw mark.

"What was a dream?" Shadow asked rather bluntly. Slayde looked at him right in the eyes and gulped while gasping.

"It doesn't matter. Don't worry about it." Slayde muttered rather nervously Shadow glared at him before picking him up and pinning him against the wall.

"Shadow!" Amy shouted. But Shadow didn't seem to hear her.

"I said. _What_ was a dream." Shadow snarled. Slayde looked petrified at Shadow's wrath.

"I.. I was one of those. Black aliens. And. And. Shadow. I killed you. He _made _me. I couldn't control myself." Slayde whispered in fear. Shadow put him down and he huddled himself in the corner.

"What do you think happened Shadow?" Amy asked. Shadow just stared at Slayde with new admiration and, if possible for Shadow, fear.

"There is no doubt in my mind if he fought me back then as he is now he would defeat me. Even if it would be a long battle." Shadow commented. "But still... Passing from one universe to another is something that is ridiculously hard to do. You can do it with a minimum of four Emeralds, but if you get the process for it even microscopically wrong you can end up with catastrophic consequences, including not being able to get back. It's too tricky _and_ risky."

"So how did he cross over?" Asked Amy.

"I don't... know..." Shadow replied as they both stared at Slayde. He seemed to be calming down again. "And besides that a mere projection must have gone over. Because he's still here. And always was. Chaos is so fucking confusing!" Causing Amy to giggle before smirking at him.

"Of course, that's why it's called Chaos." Amy commented. Shadow smirked at her comment before grabbing her arm.

"Time for some more training. I saw some things outside that should be quite interesting to fight with." Amy quickly grabbed Ebony's arm before it happened. "Chaos Control." Shadow shouted and the three disappeared in a flash of green. Slayde looked up to where the three just disappeared from and disappeared in a flash of green immediately after.

* * *

"What's going on?" Rage shouted above the ruckus. Prosha turned to him and tried to answer as best she could.

"Well sometimes we get attacked by these mutants of the fog which we call 'The Corrupted' whom attack all. Even the fat mean guy gets attacked by them!" Prosha announced to him in response. "Although it could just be a large reconnaissance team from him come to try and steal information." Prosha muttered on reflection. "Either way, it ain't good."

"Could we please have silence!" A deep voice bellowed across the environment. Everyone fell instantly quiet and not a peep was heard. "There you go milady." The Armadillo passed over the microphone to an elegant looking cream female Fox. Clad in a pearl dress that showed off her figure and showed more cleavage than Rage would have thought allowed.

"Thank you Ryan. Now then. We are under threat. Multiple Corrupted are heading this way, and it's your job to stop them before they hit the city walls. The metal may be indestructible, but the mechanisms holding the gates are not and although Eggman doesn't know that, these guys do. They all seem to have some kind of innate, unexplainable connection with one another. One guy learns your weakness, they'll all know it. So watch it!" The Fox woman announced to all of the suit users. "Maybe after you have proven yourself in this we shall let you all fight the hordes that Eggman sends rather than keeping you inside to train. They are coming from the east. Get moving."

Everyone started moving as a massive crowd towards the suggested area that the corrupted were coming from Rage, Prosha and Alpha were all standing at the back of the group and got left behind because they weren't moving "I think we should probably get moving." Alpha commented as he started walking. Suddenly a bright flash of green blinded that three. Rage looked in front and saw Slayde standing right in front of him, but he was facing the other way.

"I could have sworn I sensed him here." Slayde commented as he continued to stand there. "Ah!" He announced as he turned round. "I must have been slightly off from your Chaos signature because of that damn barrier."

"Slayde? Are you okay? Because for a black and blue Hedgehog you look pretty damn pale." Rage asked in a concerned voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It just includes a bad dream and an outer universe experience that lasted two years due to temporal differences in the time flow. So not much." Slayde commented casually. Rage sweat dropped.

"Yeah, not much at all..." Rage commented back. "I swear you're not telling me everything." Rage pointed out as he looked at the scar he had somehow acquired in just a few days of not seeing him. Slayde looked a bit shifty for a second.

"I'd rather not talk about it." Slayde announced with fire in his eyes.

"Okay bud. What you looking for me for anyway?" Rage asked. Suddenly Prosha tugged on his arm.

"Onii-chan! We need to go!" Prosha instructed him as she started pulling him.

"Think we could walk and talk?" Rage asked before he noticed Slayde trying not to laugh. "What?"

"Nothing..." Slayde responded. Rage frowned at him.

"So why are you here?" Rage asked casually as they started walking towards the area the crowd had shuffled off to. Slayde was walking next to him and Prosha was riding Alpha's Shoulders, much to his disgust.

"I just wanted to come and meet up with a friendly face since I almost ended up dead and those guys decided to bugger off." Slayde responded. Rage looked surprised.

"What about that chick you hang with?" He asked in a shocked voice.

"Ah. Well she's what I'd call 'normal'. So she wouldn't understand this and besides. She's not expecting to see me for a couple more days." Slayde answered. "So how's training at this place? I might see if I can get an invite." Rage grimaced.

"It's okay... You can't leave though, and also you can't fight in any of the Eggman battles because apparently, and I quote, we're 'being saved for when we are most needed'. Load of bull if you ask me." Rage told Slayde. "You could probably get a tour if you really wanted. It's hard though, I only got in because of Tails."

"Ah I see. I may come in just to see how you're doing. Fight some of your stronger opponents." Slayde commented casually.

"To be honest over half of them are weak, weak and more weak! But there are a few that I think even Shadow would enjoy dancing with." Rage commented. "This little pipsqueak is a technique master."

"Onii-chan!" Prosha shouted at him. He chuckled. "Slayde-san? How did you appear in front of us like that?" Alpha growled.

"How come she calls him san when she first saw him but calls me kun?" Alpha growled in irritation.

"Ah, you see. Anyone who has joined after her and not succeeded in besting her in battle she calls Kun and those that aren't in the group she refers to as San. Anyone who does manage to beat her she calls Senpai and on rare occasions, like the person who is currently at the top of this group, she refers to them as Sama." Rage explained while Prosha nodded in agreement to his words.

"So yeah, Slayde-san, how?" Prosha asked again. Rage chuckled and Slayde cleared his throat.

"That was Chaos Control. I used it to get out the walls." Slayde stated.

"I thought Chaos Control was restricted?" Rage cut across. Slayde shook his head.

"No it's just severely weakened. You can still used it, just not as easily. From what I can asses it takes up about ten times the normal amount of power of every Chaos ability there is. Even super forms, which is why I used to struggle to maintain one in there but not out here." Slayde stated, a look of dawning read on Rages face.

"Now that you mention it I felt a lot more restricted until I came to train out here. I guess that's why they train us out here. So our Chaos powers aren't restricted after all, the suits drain enough! In theory it'd be impossible to teleport back inside unless you were very powerful or very close to the wall." Rage stated in thought. Slayde nodded in agreement.

"Yeah that's what I was thinking too." Slayde commented.

"You two are so funny!" Prosha suddenly exclaimed. Both Rage and Slayde looked back at her.

"How so?" Slayde asked as they continued walking towards where the group had disappeared too.

"Well Slayde-san. You and Onee-chan are so similar. From the way you discuss things to the way you look. You only look different from your eyes and your scar Slayde-san." Prosha replied. The two stopped and looked at each other.

"Well what do you know. Why the hell didn't we notice that?" Slayde stated.

"I don't know, but I can't believe we haven't." Rage answered the rhetorical question before looking at Slayde with extreme suspicion.

"No Rage, I am not the same as you." Slayde replied to Rages unasked question to which Rage continued to looking at Slayde suspiciously, but not with as obvious intent. The group started being able to hear fighting coming from not too far away and Prosha jumped down before the small group started jogging towards the sound of the commotion.

* * *

_Slayde POV_

Almost a half of the special ops team had already been wiped out and only about a third of the invading force had been. Things were not looking good at all. A giant wolf looking creature with fur matted with black seemed to be taking on multiple enemies and there were ten of them. Some of the corrupted were just sitting it out at the back and each of them looked like Mobians. They all had complete black for eyes however and looked positively insane from the facial expressions. One of them, a red Hedgehog in his early thirties with black stains covering him, looked to be the leader as he was sporting three Chaos Emeralds in his hands and seemed to somehow be feeding their energy to what was under his command, quite possibly the wolves. Three other _Curruptians_ all held one Emerald each. Suddenly the ones at the back all looked at the one without a suit on, at _me_ and nudged their leader who also looked at me. A distinct chill reached down my spine as he looked straight into my eyes, and I looked in his. He was far more intelligent than the others. I could see that just from the look he gave me. He seemed bored, while the others were in ecstasy from the killing and the blood. He smiled at me before turning back to his comrades and looking like he barked some orders. I had to turn away from him and talk to Rage.

"Rage. I'm going to try and take down the leader and hope that they lose their chain of command. I know you are strong and someone to be relied upon, so please, could you try and distract the other Mobians from interfering. If he uses all those Emeralds in one go this could be one hell of a ride." I requested quickly before turning back to that leader, who currently had all six Emeralds in his hands. They started floating round him slowly. "Rage, he's going to use six of the Emeralds to go super. It'll damage his body the longer he's in it, so even if he's stronger as long as I can hold out for long enough he'll grow weak and frail." There was a flash of energy and a black Hedgehog flew above the ranks of everything with his bored loathsome eyes boring deep into my soul. I reached deep into my inner Chaos and pull it out, enabling myself to turn into my pride super form. I floated up to him and looked right into his deep black eyes that couldn't even be changed by a Chaos form. A quick glance down confirmed that Rage was doing as I asked and distracted the rest of the Mobians. He was doing amazing considering that it was five on one and had already took out what looked like the weakest. The distraction was what he was waiting for as a punch collided with my jaw and caused me to fly back in the air a couple meters before I steadied myself. "Call that a punch?" I asked as I felt my eyes flicker. This form always did make me full of myself, the problem with messing with the base form and changing myself to allow for more power.

"No. That was a little test to see how weak you are." The Curruptian replied. I smirked at him and he smirked back with his eyes still narrow full of darkness.

"Good. I thought this was going to be boring for a moment." I stated. I needed to try and intimidate him in some way. But how? My mind wandered back to what happened in those two years that I was in a crossover world. "I've killed many innocents you know. What makes you think I won't just do the same to you?" The Curruptian smiled at me. Unaffected and not bothered by my piece of devolved information.

"That meant to scare me little boy?" he commented. I growled. Anger surged through me as the statement echoed in my head. I felt my eyes flicker to red. I had to calm myself down.

"Little boy? I was probably born before your father." I sneered back. My age was questionable, yes. But I was at least fifty, knocking on sixty and that's not including my five years in that room. The Curruptian smiled at me maliciously before launching an attack at speeds that were near impossible to attain without the Emeralds. His knee flew into my gut before his hands wrapped round the back of my head and he knee came for my face. I rapidly move my left hand to block it and with my right charge up an attack. "Let me show you a little trick I learned off someone called Black Doom. Chaos." I felt the static feeling build in my left hand as he swiftly retreated to dodge my attack. The fool didn't realise how fast it travelled. "Surge!" A continuous bolt of electricity left my hand travelling as fast as the speed of light, hitting square in the chest and causing his body to spasm from the voltage. The drain on me was high so I quickly stopped my technique to see him still hovering there, but breathing rather heavily.

"That... Was rather... Impressive..." He stated in between breaths. "Let me... Show you... An old favourite..." He smirked as he start to glow red. "_Chaos._" He started. My eyes shot open he couldn't possibly be planning on using a Chaos blast?!

"You'll kill your allies as well as mine!" I warned. He just smirked.

"It's a risk that I have calculated and decided to accept." He replied with a smirk. I rushed at him charging up my own Chaos.

"_Chaos control!_" I shouted, teleporting both of us out of there, miles above the others.

"_Blast._"

So much red, so much pain. Make it stop make it stop! It's... Fading? Ahhh, bliss. Darkness.

* * *

_Normal POV_

A bright red flash lit up the sky followed by the noise of a massive explosion most Mobians, Curruptians and animals alike quickly glanced up to the light show. Prosha was watching it from the ground and to her it look to be almost a kilometre wide. And ten kilometres up. And something seemed to be falling from where it had happened.

"Onee-chan! I think Slayde-san is hurt!" She shouted at Rage as she butterfly kicked one of the two Curruptians that Rage hadn't finished off yet. Rage used the distraction of her to quickly finish off the one that she had attacked leaving just one left. The strongest of the bunch. Rage was already pretty damn tired from fighting the rest of them.

"Where abouts is he?" Rage asked as he got in a punch to hit gut on the last Curruptian and the Curruptian got a hit right into Rages jaw.

"Falling Onee-chan. Leave this tired one to me and go and catch him!" Prosha stated as she round housed the Curruptian. Rage nodded and ran out quickly into an open space. He saw a dark mass falling towards the ground rapidly. He ran underneath it and braced himself before he then jumped with all his might a couple kilometres into the air. He didn't quite make it but as he started falling he could see the mass rapidly gaining on him. Rage managed to catch the falling Hedgehog in his arms which instantly causing him to speed up. Rage started using his Chaos powers to slow himself down until he was suddenly clipped by a flying black hedgehog which causing him to spin out. He had managed to slow down Slayde, but dropped him and was now too far from him. The black Hedgehog came and hit him from above, causing him to slow down. Making him further away from Slayde.

"_Chaos control._" Rage shouted. Everything round him inverted and went to an almost complete standstill. Slayde was falling so fast it still looked like he was moving at a fair pace even in this dimension. Rage used Chaos to steady himself and pulled Slayde into the dimension with him. "Thank god that worked. Didn't think it would." Rage announced to himself as he slowly took them down. He sat next to Slayde for what seemed like hours while he maintained the Chaos Control so barely a thing had moved. The strain of keeping two people inside it for so long was showing on him. But he was determined, and determination was always useful. Slayde moved and quickly rolled from his back to his front and pushed himself up onto his feet.

"Damn it! He got my gloves. Urgh. How long have I been out?" Slayde asked while holding his head.

"Realistically a few hours. Technically about 3 seconds." Rage stated with as much humour as a man with next to no energy could. With that Slayde finally snapped open his eyes and looked at his surroundings.

"I see. Thanks for that Rage." Slayde mumbled. Rage suddenly collapsed. "Rage! You best not have been using your life energy." Slayde shouted as he caught him. Rage grinned.

"Maybe a little... Now go beat that bastard." Rage murmured as he fell limp in Slayde's arms and the colours turned to normal. Slayde put down Rage gently and took in a deep breath before his eyes snapped up in pure fury at the fast approaching Curruptian. He closed his eyes and went into his super from without a second thought, slowly floating up he only opened the eye with his scar. The radiant purple of it glared at the Curruptian like it had a mind of its own.

"You recovered quickly I see." The Curruptian exclaimed in a mocking tone. "But your friend doesn't seem too good. Too bad."

"You know what? Wrath makes a funny super form. It's the weakest... And yet..." Slayde opened his other eye to reveal a deep blood red colour. "It can be as powerful as pride when it needs to be."

"Is a wacked out eye job meant to scare me?" The Curruptian asked. Slayde smirked at him.

"Yes." Slayde rushed at the Curruptian and punched him in the stomach and face at the same time. Slayde immediately followed through with a back flip kick causing the Curruptian to soar into the air before having to force himself to stop.

"So you're faster? I just wasn't expecting it is all. Don't expect me to go easy on you." The Curruptian stated as he pulled himself into a battle pose. Slayde grinned at him again before holding his right hand back to gather energy. "You're not getting me with that this time! I noticed its weakness it takes too long to gather energy!" He screamed at Slayde as he flew toward him.

"_Chaos Inferno._" Slayde muttered calmly. The Curruptian was moving too fast at Slayde to move out of the way, and his eyes said it all.

"Oh shit." A tower of flames coated his body streaming straight from Slayde hands. Slayde stopped his technique and watched the singed and very irritated Curruptian look at him. "You're going to pay for that." He growled.

"Well you didn't give me enough opportunity to get enough energy to make it hot enough to kill you outright. I suppose that'll make it more entertaining though." Slayde commented cockily in a calm 'I'm not bothered' voice while he examined his hands, picking some dirt out of one of his claws. This of course enraged the Curruptian to an extreme amount. Who then charge at him full speed. Slayde waited until the last moment then Chaos Controlled behind him and kicked him in the back of the head. Before Chaos Controlling in front of him and kicking him upwards. "That should buy enough time..." He glanced down to see that the group were still being slaughtered over half their group was left but all that really remained were about ten of the suited Mobians, including Prosha and Alpha. "_Chaos..._" Slayde closed his eyes and started rapidly gathering his energy together, a bright white Chaos 'skin' covered him as screaming was heard as the dark super Curruptian came shooting down in anger. The Curruptian appeared in front of him in utter rage. "I was going to use this earlier. But it makes me vulnerable when I'm gathering the energy for it." The Curruptian rushed at him with these words, but Slayde teleported out of the way. "But now that I'm hosting two different types of super form I seem to be able to use two techniques at a time. However hosting both these at once is starting to wear down on my body. So it's time to end this." The Curruptian shot multiple bolts of Chaos Spears at Slayde, but Slayde just disappeared and reappeared right behind him. "Boo." Slayde muttered. The Curruptian shoot away at top speed, knowing he wasn't going to escape this one so easily. "_...Explosion._" What looked like a white Chaos blast shot from Slayde, the Curruptians all got hit by it and immediately fell, but all of the Mobians were unaffected. The fleeing Curruptian with the Emeralds got hit from a distance causing his dark super form to be dispelled and the Emeralds scattered. One of them flew straight towards Slayde, obviously about to veer past him, and he managed to catch it before slipping it into his quills then his Chaos form was released through sheer exhaustion and he fell some fifty meters just to be caught by a grey wolf who sported multiple scars.

"Gather the wounded. We need to get them all into the bacta tanks." Suddenly three hedgehogs came running from the darkness round them due to the fact the battle had carried them into the night.

"I sensed two high powers levels over here. One of them was unusually high as it went over mine for a split second when that technique was unleashed. Then there was a bright flash of a technique I have only ever heard of and never seen before." A male smooth as molten chocolate voice came across. "That fact that you're still here means that it was someone on your side who unleashed the move. Tell me, whom? I wish to learn it." The wolf continued to over look the troops and blanked the newcomer.

"Remember that the suits have a function that makes them lighter that can be activated in emergencies with your own Chaos energy. This guy really needs to get in a bacta tank. Can't someone take him?" The wolf commanded to everyone, several people came forwards.

"Are you ignoring me." The voice came across again in a very angry tone.

"Shadow calm down. They obviously have a lot of casualties." A female voice floated across. "Hey isn't that Rage." The pink female pointed towards the incredibly competitive and worn out black and blue Hedgehog who was standing in the line.

"I guess from your similarity that you two are brothers. Make sure he gets tank B1-*. He's earned it." The wolf handed Slayde to Rage. "So then..." The wolf turned at looked at the group, two black hedgehogs and one pink one, two females and one male. "What can I do for you... Shadow right?"

"Which one of your men used the Chaos Explosion?" Shadow asked bluntly. The wolf shrugged.

"Ah, ya see. I just can't help you there. I don't know." The wolf lied blatantly. Shadow growled at him. "Don't go starting anything now. My men still outnumber you guys three to one and I doubt that those two actually want to fight for your pig headedness anyway." Shadow glanced back to see them in the distance discussing something that sounded strangely like clothes. He turned back round with a very irritated look on his face.

"Do you know where Rage is? We need to speak with him!" The pink one asked turned from her conversation to ask. The wolf looked to her.

"If you want to speak to any of our members you must go through official channels... However, due to the circumstances I believe I could allow you to see him... Tomorrow. 15 hundred hours." The wolf stated before turning and following his men. "I would suggest finding something to do in the meantime. Go get something to eat maybe, you all look like you could do with a proper meal." The wolf started to walk off as Amy's stomach grumbled. "My point proven" He shouted back. Amy and Ebony sweat dropped and giggled with each other.

"Would you two stop that infuriating giggling. It's getting on my nerves." Shadow growled at the both. Amy looked at Ebony and smirked before Shadow grabbed both their arms and teleported back inside the walls.

* * *

"The what now? And why are the lights off?" Sonic asked. Terra rolled her eyes, though Sonic couldn't see it.

"The Damno Exemplar. It's Echidnian in origin, before we all started talking this universal language. It means 'Original Damned' and you're one of them." Terra informed in a matter of factly voice.

"Um... Okay... That didn't answer my question about the lights though..." Sonic pointed out. Terra sighed in exasperation.

"Forget about the lights for a second. Do you know why you are one?" Terra asked in irritation.

"Um... No?... Now about the lights, I don't like being alone... In a room with a pretty women... In the dark..." Sonic stated bashfully.

"Oh is that all this is abou... Aww did you call me pretty? Thanks!" Terra responded before catching herself. "Erm. Grab my hand." Terra stated.

"Your what?!" Sonic asked bashfully.

"Oh you're a grown fucking man. Stop being such a pansy." Terra stated. Sonic reached towards where Terra was last and grabbed. "That is _not_ my hand." She growled before grabbing Sonic's hand and teleporting them into some kind of tunnel. The lighting was extremely dim, but due to the time spent in the pitch black room Sonic could see quite well.

"Erm Terra, your bra is showing." Sonic pointed out as he blushed. Terra glared at him as she adjusted her top with the hand that she didn't have a hold on Sonic's with.

"Yes, I wonder why." Terra growled in sarcastic reply before walking down the tunnels. "Now don't let go because these tunnels network for miles and even we haven't explored them fully yet. Plus some are under control of the military, but I'll get onto that later, possibly."Terra explained.

After what seemed like hours of walking left and right, but always going down they hit a straight and the tunnel suddenly started getting taller and brighter, the roof stayed the same height while the floor steeply went down.. A couple minutes later Sonic was having to squint because the light was getting too much. Terra was still pulling him along by the hand and if he was honest with himself he was enjoying the warmth of her hand and being lead instead of leading for once in his life. Suddenly Terra stopped. Sonic peered ahead of her and saw that there was a sheer cliff on the other side of her frame and the room that all of the light seemed to be coming from was just in front of them. Terra suddenly jumped down without warning and pulled Sonic with her who started screaming at the top of his lungs. And after a minute he received a slap and that knocked him out of it. The ground was fast approaching and he braced himself from the landing, as did Terra. The both landed perfectly next to each other. Sonic looked round and gasped. The cave, if that's what you could call it, expanded for what seemed like forever. Looking up the ceiling to see what looked like the sky, it was blue with random spots of fiercely glowing bright lights, like multiple suns. The place was covered in lush grass, there were trees spotted here and there, and most amazing was that there were animals grazing all over the place.

"What... Is this place?" Sonic asked Terra. Terra smiled.

"The Mobius away from Mobius. We don't know who made this incredible place, nor do we know why. All we know is that there is something that creates artificial light so powerful it acts like a sun down here, which even allowed for a form of rain. That being masses of collected water vapour hitting the roof. We have fallen so far down that we are well without the sphere of influence. Of the shield. This place is literally hundreds of kilometres down. If you look carefully, above us is about the only way in and out, because it's the only piece of cave that comes down far enough to jump down from and up to. Or use Chaos control to if you can. There are no entrances on the ground level to prevent animal escape. The amount of animals here is incredible! We was expecting to find a civilisation down here, but so far no luck. We haven't yet explored the whole thing though because we simply cannot find the end." Terra explained. Sonic was just staring round, unsure what to make of the place.

"Are there no birds?" Sonic asked taking his eyes to the skies, seeing no movement to speak of. Terra too looked up and frowned to herself.

"I too have noticed a lack of birds round the three entrances we have found. As I said though, the other entrances are impractical because even if you can survive the jump they are far too high up to get back through, even with Chaos control because the other two are situated within the barrier itself." Terra speculated before continuing with the aforementioned subject. "I believe they avoid these areas because it's where some of their ancestors have gone missing and never returned. After all, we have found multiple bird skeletons and single bones laying within the caves."

"Why did you bring me here Terra?" Sonic asked calmly, looking right into her eyes. It was quite possibly the most relevant question he had asked since he had met her.

"I mainly brought you down here to train you." Terra stated plainly, but there was no hiding the ever so slight blush that she had on her cheeks.

"Okay. So what's this Domino exampler thing?" Sonic asked in a serious voice. Terra almost laughed at him and took a calming breath.

"Damno Exemplar is the name given to someone who can reach a super form or higher without use of the stones of power, the Chaos Emeralds." Terra explained. Sonic nodded.

"I see, but what does that have to do with anything?" Sonic asked. Terra rolled her eyes at him.

"Well I saw that you have minimal control over your form. Because you've strayed to the dark path and didn't expect it." Terra stated. Sonic shifted uncomfortably.

"Don't remind me." He mumbled. Terra smiled at him with sympathy.

"But that's exactly the thing! Darkness is not evil. It's how darkness is used that makes it good or evil. It's power that corrupts, but only those who let it." Terra stated. "Here, watch." Terra closed her eyes and her fur turned jet black. Her eyes snapped open to reveal red irises. "I'm not letting the darkness consume me. I'm consuming it with my own will." Terra stated Sonic looked at her in awe. He closed his eyes and allowed his fur to turn jet black, but when he opened his eyes they were still voids of white nothingness. "Come here." She whispered gently. Sonic's eyes snapped to look at her.

"I don't want to come here." He growled before soaring into the air, clipping Terra on the way. Terra rubbed her arm before shooting after him, grabbing him by his foot and throwing him down to the ground.

"You're not getting away that easily." She giggled as her eyes turned to blue. _'Anger is usually the easiest type of any super form to master, but if anger brought him into this confusion in the first place it could just make him worse. Sloth is the next easiest, but I don't see that one happening, nor gluttony, nor greed, nor envy. Which means it'd have to be one of the two hardest. Pride, or the one I learnt it in. I just need to make sure I don't lose control like I almost did then.'_

"What did you do that for." Sonic growled as he got up. He looked up at Terra just to find something hit him in the face. He ripped it off his head and looked at it. It was a black tank top. He glanced to see Terra hovering in her black bra and her black jeans. Sonic's eyes flickered deep blue for a split second before returning to their normal blank state. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sonic shouted at her, but not completely in anger. Terra giggled at him and waved in that cheeky way with just her fingers before flying off Sonic immediately and stupidly took up the game of cat and mouse and flew after her as she went up and up and up before he was once again hit in the face with some fabric. 'O_h god I'm dreading this.' _He pulled it off his face to see that it was her jeans. _'What's she up too?! Stripping off at a time like this!' _The semi naked Terra appeared in front of him, with nothing on but a black thong and bra, and smiled. Sonic felt his pupils expand and contract in a spasm as his eyes set themselves on a sea blue colour. Terra giggled.

"Ah there we go. You should be able to control your actions easier now... Now I know what type you are, time to accelerate things." Terra stated as she flew at him and grappled him, Sonic didn't know what to do with himself because of the half naked female who was pressing her body against his which made it easier for her to plummet the two to the ground. She slammed his back into the ground with the kind of force that would hurt him if he wasn't in his dark super form and kept his arms pinned down with hers she kissed his neck slowly and gently.

"What are you doing?" Sonic asked, mostly in confusion. Terra made a shushing noise.

"I always had a slight crush on you back then when I was younger and wasn't allowed to leave the village. All I had was second and third hand accounts. But then you came out. You showed that you were like me. Not just a weak show off like the elders said but a strong Chaos user, a dark Chaos user like me. And with that I just could not help but fall for you..." Terra stated while she looked into his eyes and with that she kissed him.

(_AN: If you wish to read the lemon that was took out this story please go over to 'Colour of Lust'._)

"That was amazing." Sonic stated in between breaths as he laid there.

"Yes it was. Best first time ever." Terra stated back. Looking over come with exhaustion.

"It was my first time too." Sonic chuckled. "I guess this means we're together now?" Sonic asked, not sounding so keen on the idea of commitment.

"Only if you want to be. I don't want you to feel tied down by me." Terra replied, Sonic smiled and nuzzled into her neck.

"If you're willing to accept that I'm not the most reliable guy to be in a relationship with. I mean, I can promise I shall never cheat, but I might not always be there, and I could always disappear at a moment's notice. Then, well. That's the only way I think it could work." Sonic mumbled into her fur and the kissed her neck a couple times before they both drifted off in each others arms out of sheer exhaustion.


	10. 09 Last Safe Haven

_Last Safe Haven__  
_

Sonic woke to find himself alone, he quickly sat up, trying to work out whether what had happened really happened, or whether he just dreamt it all. He was in that odd underground cave, and there was Terra cooking some wild boar, and. _'Wait wild boar? Yummmmmm'_ Sonic thought as he walked up to Terra slowly.

"About time you woke up! I've been up long enough to catch this thing and it's almost cooked too." Terra indicated the wild boar. "You look a bit out of it. Are you okay?"

"Did we really... Y'know... Earlier?" Sonic asked rather innocently. Terra turned to him.

"I hope you're not regretting it already." She stated quite bluntly before turning back to the cooking.

"No not at all! I just didn't expect something like that from myself is all." Sonic recovered, Terra nodded before she turned again. "I see you're still in your dark super form." Terra's eyes flashed their ocean blue depths for a second before she replied.

"I see that you are too. Or didn't you realise?" Terra stated as she turned back to the food, grinning. Sonic looked at his arms and saw the black of them, his jaw fell open in shock. He looked up at Terra with blue eyes.

"You helped me gain control in just a few hours! Thank you so much!" Sonic yelled in joy and planted a kiss right on her lips. Terra's eyes flared open wide in surprise before narrowing in happiness as she returned the kiss. "Is this almost done? I'm starving!" Sonic stated merrily. Terra smiled at him.

"It's done." She stated before clicking her fingers and a bag appeared in her hand, out of which she pulled out a knife and started cutting up the boar.

"How the fuck do you do that?" Sonic asked in awe, staring at the bag she was holding.

"I think the Elders called it... Chaos Closet. I told them it was unoriginal and they told me it's how closets got their name!" Terra smirked at remembering this and tossed a piece of boar to Sonic. "Ah, good times. Good times." She mumbled before taking a bite out of the ribs she was holding.

"What happened to your village?" Sonic asked out of the blue. Terra's ears flattened at the question. "I'm sorry, that was tactless." Terra looked up at him, right in his eyes.

"Don't worry about it. They're probably still there now. I hope." Terra stated. "There are people more powerful than me there after all." Terra mumbled in false hope. Sonic looked surprised at that information and went to hug her. She returned the hug and started to gently weep for her lost relatives on Sonic's shoulder. A few minutes later she picked her head off Sonic's now wet shoulder and stepped back, grabbing more to eat. "I'm sorry about that, I didn't had a chance to talk about it to anyone before that." Terra commented. Sonic shook his head at her.

"Don't be sorry. At least you're not alone now." Sonic told her as he came and hugged her from behind. Smiled and took a bite out of his piece of meat. "Oi!" Sonic exclaimed, spinning her round to see her looking at him with big 'forgive me' puppy dog eyes. Sonic just went into a grumbling rant that Terra couldn't quite catch and took a large chuck out his meat. Several minutes of silence later they had finished eating. "Well I took the saying by the horns and... Kicked it up the arse!" Sonic exclaimed happily.

"Normally the saying is _cow_ and we ate that thing between us. You didn't eat it all by yourself." Terra stated as she cleared away the part of the carcass they didn't eat and placed it under a nearby tree. Terra turned to see Sonic with his ears flattened on his head. "Sorry, I didn't mean to burst your bubble like that. I just do that sometimes, well most the time."

"I noticed... I think I sorta like it though babe." Sonic admitted as he blushed. Terra giggled at him.

"Did you really just call me that?" She asked him in a gob smacked voice. Sonic looked a bit shell shocked.

"Oh sorry! Don't you like being called that? I didn't really think!" Sonic stumbled over his own words. Terra smiled at him happily.

"It's not really your strong point is it?" Terra asked. Sonic just looked at her confused. "I don't mind you calling me that. As long as I can come up with a name for you as well... Sometime." Sonic smiled at her, before suddenly looking like he was irritated.

"Hey. Thinking _is_ one of my strong points." Sonic commented defiantly, Terra smirked at him.

"Oh of course it is Hun." Terra commented as she hugged him and patted him on the back. "Now shall we leave? We've done what I brought you down for."

"To seduce me?" Sonic commented cheekily. Terra gave him a very dirty look.

"That is _not_ why I brought you down here... Even if I was hoping..." Se trailed off before using her own power to make herself fly up towards the exit. "You coming blur?" Terra asked as she turned. Sonic leapt into the air and followed immediately after her. As soon as they were through the entrance Terra paused and looked at him. "I trust you remember the way?" Terra asked Sonic. Sonic nodded mutely. "Okay we can go through faster. Just be careful not to knock the side of the walls while you fly down or the boss will have my head if there's another cave in." Terra started flying at a fair speed for a none Hedgehog and after a time span of mere minutes they reached their destination. Terra released her dark super form and looked at Sonic. "I suggest you do the same." The brown Echidna looked at the blue Hedgehog and nodded. The both of them appeared in the dark room again. "Feel as awkward this time?" Terra asked cheekily.

"Definitely not." Sonic retorted, kissing her in the dark. The lights switched on and a rather irritated looking human glaring at him.

"What do you think you're doing?" The man asked angrily, glaring at Sonic. Sonic just looked at him blankly.

"Don't you know what kissing is?" He replied a bit too innocently making it seem like he actually meant the question rather than as just a sarcastic remark.

"Yes I know what it is! Why are you doing it to my Terra!?" He snapped hostilely.

"Well you see, when two peop- oomph. WhayaduinTerra?" Terra had clasped her hand over his mouth mid sentence.

"I'll be going out. I'll be back for my next shift!" She called out as she dragged him outside. The human just watched them both angrily.

"You best be!" The human cried out the door they left out of into the streets as he closed the door. Terra finally let go.

"Why did you do that Terra?" Sonic asked, confused. Terra looked down to the ground.

"Just don't mention what we did to him. Please?" Terra asked politely. Sonic nodded, though he didn't fully understand why.

"Why are there no people here?" Sonic asked looking round. He was used to the busy busy streets.

"Ah well, you see. This is what you'd call the 'rough area' so not many people dwell here if they can help it." Terra replied, looking back to the door that the human had retreated into.

"Hey Sonic!" A voice shouted from not too far away. Sonic quickly turned to see Amy.

"Amy! How have you been! I haven't seen you for weeks!" Sonic shouted in glee as they hugged each other. There was noticeable annoyance on Terra's face but she let it slide because the hug only lasted a second. She looked up at Shadow who was giving the two the same look and smirked.

"Long time no see... Shadow? Or was it Phantom?" Terra announced to Shadow, who looked up at her and seemed to finally realise who she was.

"You're that woman I fought with." Shadow stated.

"Way to state the obvious there Shadow." Amy's comment floated across making him glare at her. Shadow turned his attention to Sonic.

"We need to leave this city. We've already extended our welcome and the outside world could do with our help ridding of the doctor." Shadow stated, ignoring Terra's stare. "If you need to get anything sorted out before we leave I'd suggest you do it now rather than regret about it... Later." Shadow stated as he looked towards Terra, and Terra looked at him. "No, that would be silly. He needs that kind of thing." Terra crossed her arms and frowned. "Yes that's exactly what I'm suggesting." Terra looked at him concerned this time. "Ah... I see... Then you should probably tell him, he might be able to help." Shadow commented.

"Uh Shadow? Who you talking to?" Amy asked. Shadow grabbed both of them by the shoulders.

"Come on girls. We're going that all you can eat buffet nearby. My treat." Shadow announced as he steered them by the shoulders. Quickly glancing back at Terra and nodding.

"Sonic... I-" Terra mumbled.

"Come with us. Run away from the creepy human." Sonic stated. Terra looked down to her feet.

"I can't. I'm sort of... Bound to him." Terra stated, pulling up her jeans and ruffling the fur on her leg a bit to reveal what looked like a black tattoo round her leg.

"If it's some kind of dodgy thing I can get Tails to fix it. And if it's legally he probably can too..." Sonic expressed, desperate for her to understand that he could save her.

"No, it's not like that. It's a Chaos mark. I was without place to go in this city, no family, no money and he took me in. But first I had to pledge complete loyalty to him and perform a Chaos ritual that made me bound to him until he sees his debts as fulfilled." Terra stated, exasperated, tears starting to fill her eyes. Sonic walked up to her and pulled her chin up, making her look right into his eyes.

"I shall fix this." He simply said. Before walking into the door that they had walked out of. Terra waited as he entered. Sonic found himself face to face with the exact person he wanted to see the second he made it through the door. "I want you to release Terra." Sonic demanded. The human looked at him quite blandly.

"How much you offering?" The human asked as he sat down in a nearby chair, indicating the one on the opposite side of the table. Sonic remained where he was.

"I'd rather stand." Sonic stated.

"Suit yourself. Now I'll ask again. How much are you offering for my precious Terra?" The human asked. Sonic felt his rage peak at the way he worded himself, but Sonic kept his cool on his exterior.

"How much would you want for her?" Sonic asked. The human frowned and leaned back.

"Tell you what, I'm feeling generous. If you can come up with one million in two days you can have her." The human stated as he lit a cigarette.

"One million?!" Sonic chocked. The amount was more than he had ever seen, let alone ever had.

"I suppose it depends on how badly you want your girl." The human stated. "Every two days it'll go up by one million. Best get a move on!" He waved Sonic out his sight. Sonic left the building disheartened, but not without hope. He had heard Slayde had won a fair bit at the casino, and if he could just get some of it he could probably bet on himself in some fights. Terra ran up to him as soon as he made it out of the building.

"What did he say?" Terra asked. Sonic looked at her sadly.

"That I need to come up with one million in two days." Sonic announced dejectedly. Terra looked saddened "But I won't give up!"

"Don't worry about me Sonic, just go on your adventure. I knew what I was signing up for when we did what we did." Terra expressed with a sad look on her face. "I'll just go get to work." Terra made a beeline right for the door, but Sonic moved in the way.

"I will find the money." Sonic stated stubbornly, making Terra smiled.

"I hope so. Now I need to go until you do. See you soon, blur." Terra muttered sweetly as she walked through the doorway and closed the door behind her. Sonic's ears drooped. He wanted a goodbye kiss. Sonic turned from the door and started walking in the direction the others had left in.

"How do I make that kind of money?!" He exclaimed while walking down the street, suddenly he heard someone shouting him again. He looked over to see Amy standing in a doorway. Waving for him to come in. Sonic walked into the doorway and was greeted by one of the most versatile all you can eat restaurant he had ever seen! On the buffet table there were all sorts of delicacies coming from all over the world.

"Why so glum?" Amy asked as Sonic sat down with a plate full of food. Sonic however had just put something in his mouth with his fingers and started vigorously chewing.

"His girlfriend is bound to a man by laws more ancient than gravity itself." Shadow stated as he poked a squid looking thing. "Is this really edible?" Shadow asked Amy casually, Amy nodded. Sonic was looking at Shadow like he was insane. Sonic quickly swallowed what he was chewing making his eyes water.

"How the hell did you know that? I only just found out!" Sonic stated in irritation. Shadow slowly and carefully put the squid in his mouth and spat it out into the nearby bin. Before turning to Sonic as Amy rolled her eyes at him.

"Your girlfriend would appear to have some low level of telepathy. She can beam concentrated thoughts directly into someone's mind... Hmm... Wonder how much she can read... Anyway. She told me while I was having what seemed like a one sided conversation." Shadow commented as he picked up something that didn't looked remotely edible. "Amy? What the fuck is this?" Shadow commented as he held it in front of her.

"Oops! That was meant to be on my plate! I like trying new things unlike you Mr. grumpy gills." Amy retorted as she grabbed it off him and put it in her mouth. "Yum, not too bad."

"I think I'll take your word for it..." Shadow trailed off as he looked at her in amazement.

"Well I need to come up with a million rings. Any ideas?" Sonic stated, looking miserable.

"Oh, I made a million rings from five hundred before by betting on Shadow. Of course, they've edited the betting system now so it's much harder to do that. There are maximum bets depending on the ratio and person involved... You could ask Slayde. Last thing I knew he had about two or three million of his winnings from the casino left." Amy commented as she watched Shadow squeamishly wade through all of the food on his plate. "Shadow, you might be the ultimate life form but when it comes to trying new food you're just like every other guy." Amy pointed out, earning her a glare for Shadow and Sonic alike. Ebony giggled before the glares were turned to her and she put her head down and started eating again.

"So erm... Where is Slayde?" Sonic asked as he got another forkful and stuff it into his mouth. Amy looked to Shadow.

"Truth is we don't know. We left him at the hut we was training in to recuperate, but apparently he was well enough to fight his way back out of that beast infested forest. Ask Amy. She's the one who somehow worked out that you was here." Shadow stated as he pulled something out and grimaced at it before chewing rather noisily with a look of disgust on his face.

"Seriously Shadow, you're fine with eating a newly caught fish raw and yet you turn your nose up to what people spent decades perfecting." Amy commented. Sonic stared at her expectantly and she looked at him and frowned. "Sonic. My gut tells me he's with Rage. But how could he be? Rage is in an elite training environment where it's very hard to visit, let alone stay for a night! Either way though. We have an appointment to see Rage at 3 pm tomorrow. So we can ask him then."

"So... Wait?" Sonic asked in despair. Amy looked at him and rolled her eyes.

"I never said _that_. Stupid Hedgehog. No, go look! But _if_ you can't find him or a way, there's a sliver of hope for you!" Sonic looked at Amy gob smacked. She'd never called him stupid before.

"Okay guys! I'm going to leave! Se you all tomorrow!" He shouted as he dashed out.

"Bye _Blur_." Shadow shouted at him, Sonic stuck his middle finger up while running. "Hehe." Shadow grinned as he turned back to his plate and sighed at the mound of strange food that awaited him.

* * *

Slayde could feel warmth and wetness round him. And something was clamped onto his face and was pushing breath into him. He opened one of his eyes in case the liquid he was in stung his eye, or worse. He found himself in a clear, blue tinted liquid. He instantly recognised what it was and opened his other eye. He could see people sitting round outside the tank, they were all talking and not looking towards him. He looked up looking for a way out, but it seemed that the top was sealed. He tapped on the glass and the person slowly turned round. Slayde rolled his eyes at the doctors slow reactions. The doctor, a yellow ferret, quickly dashed to the control panel and drained the liquid to let Slayde out. As soon as Slayde got out the tank he was swarmed by half of the medical team.

"You wasn't set to be conscious for two days!" The doctor commented loudly. "Yet there isn't a scratch on your body!" Slayde shooed away some of the people swarming him.

"How long have I been in there then?" Slayde questioned, keeping an eye those closer to him.

"Seven hours!" The doctor expressed in awe. Slayde nodded.

"Wow that stuff really does heal you fast. I didn't expect myself out for at least a day." Slayde commented as he started picking up and putting on his clothes that were left on the side.

"You can't leave yet! We need to examine what healed you so fast!" The doctor exclaimed. Slayde continued walking.

"I didn't ask to be brought here, so I shall not be allowing any experiments to be conducted on myself thank you." Slayde bluntly stated, and with that he exited the room.

"Onee-chan!" He heard to his left. Turning his head he saw Rage walking away from him, Prosha was tugging on Rage's arm and looking in his direction. Rage slowly turned and looked at Slayde in shock.

"Hey buddy! You wasn't meant to be unleashed on the world for two days!" Rage commented. "How come you're out so quick?" Rage questioned, his suspicious look coming out again.

"Apparently I'm made of tougher stuff than they thought." Slayde commented as he examined his the back of his hand while walking towards Rage.

"Is that another scar?" Rage asked as he pointed at the back of Slayde hand.

"Yeah, it is. It's shaped like a crescent moon." He said as he pointed to it with his left hand. "And this one is shaped like a bolt of lightning." He pointed to the back of his left hand with his right. "And you all know that this one simply looks like a claw mark." He stated as he pointed to the set over his left eye as he arrived next to them. "I'd rather not point out the other ones because it'd mean I'd have to undress _again_ and I just got the clothes back on."

"You have _more_?!" Rage shouted in shock. Slayde nodded.

"I have seven, including these three." Slayde commented casually as they started walking down the corridor together. Rage looked at him gob smacked. "To be fair Rage, I could have gotten six of them before I even met you considering this is the first time you've seen me without gloves. I must say, I quite like it. May stay like this."

"Yes, but did you?" Rage retorted. Slayde paused for a while.

"No?" Slayde muttered in uncertainty. Rage smirked at him.

"Thought not." Rage commented cockily. Slayde stuck up his middle finger at him, which seemed surprisingly more effective without gloves. "The top guy, who has the most sway out of anyone else here, managed to get you suit constructed. God knows how he did it." Rage told Slayde as they walked, Slayde had no idea where they were going.

"His name is Aurthan Onee-chan. You're just jealous he's better than you." Prosha interjected in a happy voice. Rage looked at her with an irritated face.

"I am _not _jealous. If I was jealous of everyone stronger than me I'd also be jealous of Sonic, Shadow and even Slayde here. Not to mention several others in this group and even you with your stupid techniques." Rage retorted. Prosha blinked at him for a second.

"But you _are_ jealous of Shadow, Slayde and me." Prosha stated innocently. Rage face palmed.

"Shut up... Please...?" Rage seethed, his urge to slam his head against the wall in frustration obvious.

"So where we heading now?" Slayde asked cutting across the very pleasant conversation while smirking at Rage. Rage frowned at him.

"We're heading to pick up that suit I was talking about." Rage stated. Rage pointed at the next door. "It's just in there." Rage pointed out as Slayde went on ahead and entered. The scientist looking Rabbit turned and looked at him. The Rabbit was snow white and was wearing a lab coat. One of his ears stuck up the other one was drooped.

"Ah it's you! You wasn't meant to be out-" The Rabbit started.

"For two days, I know. I've been told by everyone." Slayde finished for him, the Rabbit looked at him analytically for a second before laughing.

"You seem to know your stuff." He commented as he walked to the back of the room as if searching for something.

"I beg your pardon?" Slayde asked confused. The Rabbit looked up and stared at him for a second, a hard stare. Before turning back to what he was doing and talking.

"You're blocking me from being able to touch the surface of your mind. Blocking the deeper parts isn't much of a feat, as most people do it subconsciously. But blocking the types of thoughts that swim round and change so frequently is difficult. Very difficult. Most people just wear their hearts on their sleeves, so it's interesting to know what they're thinking. Plus most people's mental barriers are so weak I could break through them if I wanted t-aha! Found it." The Rabbit stood holding one of the suits that Rage was wearing. "It should be fit perfectly to your measurements. You'll need to let the psychic bond through if you want to control it properly though. One it's bonded with you it'll grow with you. It's a work of art to be honest, I'm glad I had a help in it before the creator died."

"What part did you help on?" Slayde asked as he took the suit from his hands. The rabbit looked at him amused.

"Can you not guess?" The Rabbit asked as he looked into Slayde's eyes.

"I think I can, yeah. Thanks for this." Slayde thanked as he walked outside the door.

"The one named Rage still hasn't given up on trying to find out who you are." The Rabbit called before Slayde opened the door. Slayde nodded before he exited.

"Got the suit now?" Rage asked as soon as he stepped outside. Slayde looked back at the Rabbit and half smiled, half smirked at him before the door closed.

"Yeah I have." Slayde replied. They started walking as Rage looked at him funnily and then whispered.

"That guy's a bit strange isn't he. It's like he can read your mind." Slayde look at Rage funnily.

"Erm, yeah... It does seem like that." Slayde commented before changing the subject. "Where do I get changed?" He asked Rage it was, however, Alpha who answered.

"We're just heading there now. Rage wants to perv on you as you get changed." Alpha commented casually. Rage glared at Alpha heavily.

"It's not like that and you know it." Rage shouted at Alpha before calming down. "I want to see those scars you were talking about." Rage commented, his anger still seeping through in his voice. Rage walked through a door and Alpha stood outside with Prosha. Slayde paused for a second before realising that this must be where they were talking about so he followed Rage in. The room was one big communal shower area, the area in the middle was covered in benches with a few lockers. Obviously to allowed people to shower without worrying about what they could lose. Slayde immediately took off his top and dumped it on one of the benches. He paused as his right hand traced something on his left shoulder. Rage looked at it intently. "Is that... A snowflake?" Rage questioned as he pointed pointlessly.

"Mmhmm." Slayde mumbled in reply as he started taking of his jeans. Rage looked to his right shoulder to see another scar.

"And that a sun?" Rage asked. Slayde nodded his head as he took off his boxer shorts. Rage shamelessly stood there staring at Slayde's scars as Slayde started to pull the suit onto his legs. "Where are the others then?" Slayde sighed and turned round slowly and Rage's eyes popped open. "That's a mountain! But what's the other..?" Rage trailed off as he tilted his head trying to get a better look at it.

"It's a gust of wind Rage. May I get changed in peace now?" Slayde questioned as he pulled the suit over his scars and put his arms in.

"What... Are they?" Rage asked in curiosity. Slayde rolled his eyes.

"Your education in Chaos is severely lacking. The ones on my body represent six of the seven elemental Chaos." Slayde informed as Rage gawped at him.

"What's the claw one over your eye?" Rage mentioned. Slayde's left hand snapped to his scar and touched the bottom of it, his eyes widened as he looked like he was thinking about something very important.

"I'd rather not talk about it to be honest Rage." Slayde commented as he let his hand drop. "Maybe some other time." Slayde added. Rage smiled and nodded. Slayde put his usual jeans and top back over the suit. "What do we do for fun round here then?" Slayde asked. Rage indicated the door and Slayde followed. They got out of the door to find that Prosha and Alpha had gone. "That's odd." Slayde commented, Rage's brow furrowed and he quickly ran off, forcing Slayde to run to keep up. "What's up?!" Slayde shouted to Rage.

"I think I know what's happened. I should never had let her out my sight!"Rage yelled back as they came round a corner to see Alpha being beaten up against a wall by the blue Echidna and Prosha being held by Scourge.

"I see you have arrived Rage." A yellow hedgehog announced as soon as the two came round the corner.

"Why are you doing this you bastards?" Rage roared. Dash smirked and swapped places with Scourge on holding Prosha.

"I think it's about time we settled this, don't you?" Scourge announced. Rage growled.

"How?" Rage asked rather harshly. Scourge smirked.

"Well you see. Each of the top three get to pick something that they want. Top wasted his on a special bacta tank, but I got myself my own room, specifically for me and my fights. We shall fight in there." Scourge explained before pointing to the door that was just next to them. Rage immediately went inside, as did Slayde. Scourge smirked and enter himself. "This entire room will go under the gravity, so I would not suggest anyone to come in here who cannot... handle it. Let's say, 25000?" Scourge asked smirking. He knew full well that Rage wouldn't be able to cope with that weight as he hadn't trained enough for it yet. Slayde silently sat down on the floor.

"Just get this started already." Rage growled angrily while cracking his knuckles. Scourge smirked as he flipped a switch on the control board which activated the room control for the gravity of the suits. The strain on Rage was obvious immediately, and although he had the Chaos energy to cope with the suit his body wasn't strong enough to take it so he fell to his knee.

"Wish to give in already?" Scourge mocked. Rage pulled himself to his feet with a look of fury in his eyes. Rage tried to charge at Scourge, but stumbled instead. Scourge was quickly at his side. "This really all you got?" He asked as he pushed him over, kicking him in the side of the head so hard he passed out. Slayde strolled over to Scourge and Rage, picking Rage off the ground and carrying him to the side. "What do you think you're doing?" Scourge snapped at Slayde. "I don't want to go near your pussy ass new guy."

"Would you class yourself as a bully?" Slayde asked as he walked back towards Scourge. Scourge looked at him like he was insane.

"What you talking about?"Scourge demanded, blatant confusion coming across in his voice.

"Because I would, you see. And it's not nice to bully." Slayde stated as he held himself in a defensive fighting stance. Scourge smirked at him.

"Ah, I see. So you, the new guy who has never used or likely even heard of these suits before today. Thinks that he is stronger than me? The third to top fighter?" Scourge mocked. Slayde just looked at him calmly. Scourge started laughing like a fool at Slayde. Slayde just frowned at him.

What's so funny?" Slayde asked while raising his eyebrow. Scourge stopped laughing and just smirked.

"I'll be right back." Scourge stated before leaving the room, as soon as he opened it the gravity returned to normal, Slayde went over to Rage to check how he was. Besides a small cut on the side of his head he was visibly fine, that and the unconsciousness of course. Scourge suddenly come bursting through the door again with people following him, including his gang that had hold of both Prosha and Alpha. They all went and lined up at the side of the wall with the door on it.. "If you could please move away from that wall new guy. I decided to get witnesses in so that people can laugh at you for how weak you are." Slayde just shrugged at him, making his temper flare. Scourge hit a few buttons and something clear and not unglass like descended from the ceiling separating the room into a tiny viewing area and almost full fighting area. "I guess if you're as tough as you say you are I'll just crank this right up to 29 thousand." He looked over to Slayde intimidatingly but found that Slayde was cleaning his claws. "Oi you! Pay attention while I gloat!" Slayde looked up slowly.

"Sorry, I was just getting bored of waiting for you to get this fight started." Slayde stated detachedly Scourge's eyes flared with rage as he flipped the gravity switch and started charging towards Slayde. Slayde looked up slowly and took the charge head on, stopping Scourge in his tracks. "That all you got?" Slayde questioned mockingly before pushing Scourge onto the floor. Slayde stood there and waited for him to get up.

"You cheeky little bastard, I'll deal with you." Scourge spat at him, Slayde just shrugged at him nonchalantly. Scourge threw a punch at Slayde's face which was caught by Slayde lazily. Slayde looked at the arm for a second before swiftly twisting it round. A loud crack was heard followed by a whine and harsh snarl as Scourge retreated, left arm limp. "You fucker! Ow, shit!" Scourge screamed as he clutch his forearm, part of it obviously broken.

"Next time... Don't under estimate someone you don't know." Slayde stated impassively as he walked towards the door, the sheet moving away almost knowingly as the gravity dropped to normal levels once again. He quickly stood next to Rage. "Could you tell your goons to let go of my friends?" Slayde asked, but no sooner than he had looked at them had they instantly released them in a form of natural reaction. The two seemed fine apart from minor injuries that looked like they had been gained in a small scrap. They both exited the door as Slayde picked up Rage and walked out with him.

* * *

Sonic was running round frantically, as had he been for hours, and it was now 2. It seemed that he would not possibly find the money unless he asked Slayde. Which he didn't really want to do. Being in some ones debt was never a good thing, and so much would be an impossible amount to get out of, even if he did have a feeling that Slayde would be sticking round for a long time. He had a possible half hour before the others were heading out of the city walls to wait to see Rage. He had tried a couple of casinos but all hedgehogs had been barred -no doubt Slayde's and Rage's fault- so he truly had no idea what to do. He looked down to what he had managed to collect from doing various odd jobs for people and frown at it. Three hundred rings was hardly going to cover the costs that he needed and without the money Terra was doomed to a lifetime of servitude. As she had been since coming to this damned city. Sonic sighed a heavy sigh. He honestly didn't know what to do anymore. Though he did realised he should probably find Shadow and Amy now just in case he couldn't find them before they left, yet at the same time he really didn't want to rely on people. His pride just wouldn't for allow it.

He was in a painful situation, so he sat down on a wall in front of one of the buildings to think.

"It's not like you to give up." A feminine voice came from behind him. He looked round to see a black version of Amy.

"Ebony right?" Sonic checked, she nodded. Sonic sighed as he played with a piece of paper in his pocket. "I know, but what can I do? There seems to be no way to make that kind of money that fast unless I go running round outside the city, and even then, searching for that many rings laying round would take several days if I did it none stop! I have little over a day to get the money to him, else it'll go up and up and up."

"You still shouldn't give up. From what I've heard, Slayde doesn't seem to care much for money. So providing he hasn't thrown it away already he'll give you it without wanting to be paid back." Ebony told him, Sonic didn't look convinced.

"Even if he didn't, I would feel honour bound to pay him back somehow. So I just, don't know what to do..." Sonic trailed off. Ebony looked at the blue Hedgehog sadly.

"If you don't accept it you may end up regretting it. Just come and talk to him when we go to see Rage later." Ebony requested. Sonic looked up to the artificial sky.

"Yeah, I guess you're right..." Sonic agreed before looking down at her, he then gave her a puzzled look. "What makes you so confident that he's there?" Sonic questioned her. Ebony shrugged and smiled at him.

"Because Amy said that he would be." She replied simply. It wasn't really logic you could argue with for some reason.

"Where are those other two anyway?" Sonic asked, looking round briefly for the two, whom seemed to be nowhere in sight.

"Oh, they're on one of the tallest buildings, Shadow's trying to improve her sense of balance by making her run round the edge..." Ebony explained slightly awkwardly because even she knew that Shadow's training methods were weird. Ebony looked over to the outskirts of town. "We'll be leaving soon." She stated before melding with the crowd and walking towards the outskirts. Sonic continued sitting on the wall, staring into the crowd where she had vanished for about five minutes before he caught himself daydreaming about Terra and what they did. He pulled an envelope out his pocket and looked at the writing that had been scrawled on the front before stuffing it back into his pocket.

"There's still hope." He told himself as he jumped off the wall and walked through the crowd, trying to catch up with Ebony.

"Shadow, I'm glad that you helped get my balance and centre of gravity better, but did we really have to do it like that?" Amy asked, worry in her eyes.

"Come now Rose, we both know that if you fell you wouldn't be hurt anyway. I'd have caught you." Shadow told her. Amy sighed, he had made her jump at the end anyway.

"Yes I know, and you did catch me when we got close to the ground. But you could have got me sooner." She half scolded him. The two were now roof hoping in the suburban district. The buildings were small enough here that Amy had no problem falling and catching herself, though the fall would still kill a normal person.

"Maybe, but then you wouldn't have been able to appreciate the full free fall." Shadow replied calmly. Amy had stopped bothering trying to argue when Shadow had a reason for doing something, even if it was a stupid reason. It was like talking to a brick wall.

"We're not far from the edge of the city are we?" Amy questioned. Shadow shook his head, they were heading East, towards the gate. "Oh yeah, the meeting with Rage. I had lost track of time." Amy stated, continuing her run with Shadow.

"Now to find out is Slayde is there." Shadow stated before he accelerated, Amy barely keeping up.

"Ebony! Sonic!" Amy called out as her and Shadow approached. "You're here already!" She mentioned.

"Yeah, was starting to lose hope, but Ebony set me straight." He looked to Shadow as if that meant something, causing Amy to raise her eyebrow at the two of them in suspicion. "Now I take it we need to leave today?" Sonic asked. Shadow nodded. "Then I best hope Slayde is here, or I'm screwed." Sonic put it simply. Shadow looked at his hand moving round in his pocket, playing with something, and smirked.

"Okay, ten minutes to go." Shadow stated, walking towards the guard house. Noises could be heard but no words be made out from where the group was standing. "Okay, good!" Shadow called behind him as he exited the hut. The gates started to move open slowly. "Come on everyone." Shadow ordered as they walked out into the rain, for it had once again started. Seemed the pollution of the planet was simply too much. They had to stop it from continuing.

"How did you get them to open the door?" Sonic asked, he was surprised they let people out so easily. Shadow pulled out a piece of paper.

"I have permission card from Tails to leave and enter at any time, gate and with whomever I want. I'm surprised you don't have one." Shadow informed him, giving him a suspicious look.

"Well I might be, just might, supposed to be in a hospital bed right now..." Sonic trailed off with a grin. "Funny how things like that can skip your mind." Sonic chuckled, Shadow gave him the hint of an approving look. Amy however didn't look impressed.

"Sonic! What if they needed you in there for longer to monitor things or something?!" She shouted at him. Sonic's ears folded back.

"Rose, just leave him. He's obviously fine if he can run round like a fool in love. Wait did I say like? I meant since he _is_ running round because he is a fool in love." Shadow announced with a grin, earning a glare off Sonic. Amy sighed, not bothering to argue again. The group looked up to see a several metal buildings not too far away. It looked like a town of metal.

"Our destination?" Sonic asked. Amy nodded to him, Shadow was too far ahead to talk to. It took them a minute or so to make it to the small base. The door was open, and they headed straight inside out the rain.

The place was busier than imagined, various Mobians running this way and that, trying to reach somewhere or another. A familiar battle scarred grey Wolf appeared, everyone seemed to be giving him a wide birth as they ran by. "Ah, so you all came. This way if you please." He asked them. They all followed behind him, none of them getting hit by the passing crowd, presumably because they were with who Shadow could only guess was either the head of the place or the strongest one there. He led them to a room that no one seemed to be entering or leaving. His hand was scanned at the door allowing the door to open. Inside were several people, three of them were scientists, but sitting down there was also a small Hedgehog, a young grey Wolf, Rage, and of course Slayde. "There you go." He commented as he left the room, leaving them inside.

"Yo." Slayde stated, Amy walked up to him slowly and slapped him, leaving him rubbing his cheek.

"Don't you dare 'yo' me! I've been worried sick! Where the hell were you when we got back? How on Mobius did you get here?!" Amy scolded, Slayde flattened his ears and looked quite 'cute'.

"Shadow, could you please tell your girlfriend to stop shouting at me." Slayde muttered. Amy stopped immediately and went red. Shadow however just looked at him.

"She is my apprentice and good friend Hedgehog. Nothing more, nothing less." Shadow replied. "But she does have a point. How did you get here?"

"Well you guys just vanished, so I thought I'd come and see my good friend Rage here. Anyway, you don't seem too surprised that I'm here. So either I'm predictable or Amy's getting stronger faster than she should be..." Slayde mumbled the last bit so no one except Shadow and himself heard it, though Rage looked at him curiously. Shadow gave him a look that quite obviously meant 'we need to talk later'. Slayde subtly nodded to him.

"You're just predictable." Rage commented, Slayde completely ignored him.

"So what brings you here on this rainy afternoon?" Slayde asked.

"I think Sonic should go first." Shadow announced, pushing him forwards. Sonic stumbled and fell flat on his face, earning a snigger from more than one person in the room. He quickly stood up and glared at Shadow. "It wasn't just me." He told him as he folded his arms. "Get on with it."

"I need to borrow some money." Sonic mumbled to Slayde. Slayde nodded.

"Sure how much?" He asked as he started pulling money out.

"A million rings..." Sonic trailed off. Slayde didn't even blink as he stuck his hand out, full of notes.

"There you go." Slayde motioned. Sonic just stood there staring at the money.

"As simple as that?" Sonic asked. Slayde laughed at him, standing up, he placed the money into Sonic's hand.

"Of course as simple as that. Who needs money anyway?" Slayde commented as he sat back down. Sonic looked confused, yet very very happy.

"Thanks a-!" Sonic started before Slayde cut across, a slightly irritated look on his face.

"No need, just go and take it to whatever you need it for, and make it fast. I presume we're leaving soon." Slayde mentioned, a look of realisation appeared on Sonic's face as he zoomed out of the facility. Everyone was quiet for a few seconds, the noises of the scientists in the background.

"You are of course correct." Shadow stated. "We need to leave soon, otherwise we may end up staying even longer and realistically we need to get to work on restoring all of the stuff that the Doctor has destroyed."

"Something seems wrong though. Why is Sonic in such a panic to swallow his pride? Is there a girl involved?" Slayde asked, there was shuffling in the room as Amy crossed her arms and Rage crossed his legs, then Shadow smirked. "I hit the nail on the head, didn't I?"

"Pretty much." Shadow confirmed, nodding, smirk still on his muzzle.

"Men have an awful lot of pride but they are forever being taken in by lust." Slayde mumbled like it was an old saying. "Now then! I guess we're leaving as soon as possible?" Slayde stated as he rubbed his hands together, strolling forwards into the middle of the three. "Good thing I've got provision ready then." He mentioned casually as he place a hand on Shadow's shoulder and the other hand on Amy's shoulder.

"You've what?" Shadow questioned as he shrugged the annoying Hedgehog off his shoulder. Slayde and Rage smirked.

"We know that we'd be leaving soon so me and Rage managed to get it arranged with this lot here." Slayde answered as he indicated the building round him. "They're really quite nice people once you get to know them."

"You've been here a few hours." Shadow pointed out, Slayde laughed.

"Rage hasn't." Slayde said simply, nodding towards the Hedgehog in question, who smiled and waved. A look of annoyance with a hint of gratitude appeared on Shadow's face. "Besides that I beat their third strongest fighter, so I was granted something that I wanted."

"Fair enough. I do know that we need it anyway. I was planning on asking Tails right after seeing you. So I guess you've saved me a trip. I thank you." Shadow commented appreciatively, Slayde nodded in return.

"So then! We need to get Prosha in bed. Alpha, you keep an eye on her. The rest of us need to get ready. Sonic will be back in a few minutes if he continues to live up to his name. It's best to leave before anything else tries to stop us!" Slayde announced, speaking really quite fast as he walked back to the table and sat on it, he turned back to see Amy and Shadow looking at him. In fact all eyes were on Slayde. "What?"

"Don't you think you should go and say goodbye?" Rage asked him, hand on his shoulder. Slayde paused. Then sighed.

"I'm no good with goodbyes..." Slayde mumbled, pulling Rage's hand off his shoulder.

"Then maybe it's time to change that." Shadow cut in. Causing Slayde to look up at him in surprise before he sighed.

"You're both right of course. See you in a minute." Slayde told them as he built power up. Rage grabbed his shoulder.

"You can't teleport back in!" He shouted in worry. Slayde rolled his eyes and Shadow looked at Rage as if he were stupid.

"The shield makes you have to use ten times more energy to teleport in, or out for that matter. Meaning that you have to picture going ten time the distance, but! If moving ten times the distance lays outside the bubble then you will simple end up there anyway. Incredible mechanism makes it so you can only get in if ten time the distance to get in is also within the bubble. We're two kilometres away from the bubble, and the bubble is thirty two kilometres big. Therefore if I wish to get within the bubble I have to teleport slightly over twenty kilometres away. So if I go thirty to be safe, I'll be round about one kilometre inside the bubble. Now then. _Chaos Control!_" Slayde shouted, before Rage could try and stop him again, disappearing in a flash of yellow.

"Isn't Chaos Control normally green?" Amy questioned, staring at the spot that Slayde had just vanished from. Shadow chuckled causing everyone in the room to fall silent, even the scientists who could simply tell that was odd.

"No, no, not at all! It's normally green for me simply because I have overused the green Chaos Emerald and it just sort of stuck. Call it a slight taint or 'stain' on my energy if you will." Shadow explained. Amy nodded in understanding, no one else seemed to have the foggiest but were all nodding and smiling anyway. Shadow rolled his eyes at them all. "I'm not in the mood for explanations beyond that." He told them all causing slight looks of disappointment and also making the scientists get back to whatever the hell they were doing in a room full of random people and a bacta tank full of, well..., bacta.

"So if we're all ready to leave, that just leaves those two to get back." Rage commented, Prosha gave him a stern look.

"You're not leaving me behind are you?" She asked in the cutest voice she could manage.

"Yes." Rage muttered as harshly as he could manage, and although his reluctance and sadness betrayed him to the adults in the room Prosha stood up in a huff, not old enough yet to see through such an obvious attempt at deceit.

"Fine then!" She shouted as she stormed out of the room. Alpha in toe, just before he left however he commented.

"Don't you think that was a little too much?" He asked as he disappeared round the door. Rage sighed as he let go of the breath he wasn't even aware he had been holding.

"And you told Slayde off for being bad at goodbyes." Shadow commented, the black and blue Hedgehog ignored him, looking at his feet. After a minute of silence he shrugged.

"I'm a hypocrite, so sue me." He finally replied. Shadow just stood there, arms folded.

"That was seriously the best you could come up with in all that time?" Shadow asked him in a slightly amused voice. Rage shrugged again. Obviously not in the mood to talk.

"Shadow, just leave him." Amy told him as she put her hand on his shoulder, he turned to her and looked her in the eye. After a second he nodded and started walking out the door.

"Come on you two, we're going to go and check that we have everything we'll be needing." Shadow commanded as he walked out the door. Amy and Ebony followed almost immediately after, but not before Amy gave Rage an apologetic look. Rage sat in silence for several minutes while the scientists worked on their research behind him. He let off one more sigh.

* * *

Slayde reappeared in another flash of yellow in front of a familiar house. He stared at the door for a little while, unsure about whether this was such a good idea or not. Slowly he walked to the door, placing his hand at a poise ready to knock. He then realised he could hear voices from inside, frowning, he pressed his ear against the door. Slayde was pretty sure that he recognised the voice, yet for some reason just couldn't place it, raising an eyebrow as he pulled away he knocked on the door, a fuss was made inside before the door opened about a minute later.

"Oh, it's you! Thank god for that." Eleanor told him as she opened the door fully. "I'll go make tea!" She announced merrily as Slayde peered at the sofa to see Tails sitting there.

"Hey Slayde." The Fox stated casually. Slayde looked at him gob smacked.

"Should you really be making house calls like this? If someone hostile towards you saw you come in they might attack the house!" Slayde scolded him. Tails looked at him awkwardly.

"Well I really needed to give you something. Just in case all else fails." Tails informed him. Slayde's curiosity had now peaked as he looked at Tails with interest.

"And what would that be Tails?" Slayde asked. The two tailed Fox quickly pulled out a rucksack from next to him, and out of it he pulled a machine.

"I presume you know what it is?" Tails questioned him, Slayde motioned him to pass it to him. After a few seconds of careful observation Slayde nodded.

"Yeah, I know what this is." He replied as he passed it back. "How did you manage to get one? Did you build it?" The Hedgehog asked him as he watched Tails put it back into his bag.

"Yeah, I did. I found some old plans within some of my old vaults that never came to fruitation. After learning a bit more about the Chaos Emeralds from making not just one, but two fake ones I managed to find a way to do it. Though I can't be completely sure how it will work, I am confident that it shall." Tails informed the Hedgehog. Slayde nodded.

"What's it being powered by? Something like this won't work without a power source related." Slayde asked, the two tailed Fox looked awkward.

"You probably know what it's powered by. The last one left." Tails replied to him, Slayde nodded again.

"Yes, I did feel some sense of belonging... Yet I think the big question is why are you giving it to me rather than Sonic." Slayde asked him. The Fox looked away awkwardly before sighing.

"Well there are two reasons. The first being that Sonic's walking down a dangerous path, and I don't know where it's going to lead him." Slayde nodded, fully appreciative of his position in that matter, despite the fact that he was sure that Sonic would find his way in the end. "And the other is that I doubt he would even know what it is anyway. I've heard things about you, you're almost as smart as Shadow. Which takes some doing." Tails gave his answers. Slayde looked at the Kitsune, troubled.

"Why did you not ask Shadow?" Slayde questioned rather more abruptly, causing Tails to frown.

"I don't trust him still." The Kitsune replied simply. Slayde could hardly argue with that, yet it still didn't make complete sense.

"You trust me more, or you trust him less?" Slayde asked curiously, Eleanor had come back and was looking at Slayde confused.

"What do you mean Slayde? They're the same thing." The Rabbit asked, Slayde continued looking at the quiet Kitsune.

"He knows what I mean, because they are not." Slayde told her. "Which is it?" He asked again. "I'm not bothered, I just want to know." He added.

"I trust him less." Tails finally replied. "You have given me no reason to trust you, but neither have you given me a reason to distrust you. Take this as a chance to prove yourself if you wish." Slayde nodded.

"I thought so. I'll keep it safe and not tell anyone about it unless the time is right." Slayde promised him. Tails seemed a little reluctant to give it up now however. "You have my word Tails." Slayde added as he held his left hand out. Tails stood and gave him the bag and its contents.

"Thank you for the hospitality Eleanor. But I'm afraid I've over stayed my welcome." Tails told her as he pulled on a cloak and opened the door. He took one last look at Slayde before he walked out of the door.

"I made him a cup and everything." She mumbled to Slayde.

"Don't mind him, he's a busy man." Slayde reassured her. "Now I'm afraid that I've got bad news." Slayde started.

* * *

Sonic stood in front of the familiar door, money in hand. He had no need to hesitate and yet he was. Which was simply because Sonic suspected that the human would not hold up his end of the bargain. He walked in and saw the human sitting there, smug as ever.

"Given up already? I expected more of a Hedgehog." The human commented to Sonic. Sonic just slammed his money onto the table.

"You'll find it's all there." Sonic told him bluntly. The human raised his eyebrow at him, immediately he grabbed it and started counting, he was done after just a few minutes.

"This isn't possible, it has to be some kind of trick." The human denied, looking at the Hedgehog with hostility.

"And yet there it all is, clear as day." Sonic stated, hitting his finger onto the table on each syllable of 'clear as day', getting slightly annoyed.

"No, she's mine. She's my best worker. I shall not give her to anyone." The human shouted. "And out of all of them, she's the best in the other areas too." He taunted. Sonic slammed his fists onto the table in rage, causing it to break in half.

"You shall release her and keep your word. Or I swear..." Sonic trailed off, he could feel dark energy seeping through his pores, trying to cling to his fur once again.

"You'll do what you scum? There's nothing you can do." The human retaliated. Sonic sighed a breath of pure anger and walked out the room. Sonic knew that this would happen as he pulled out an envelope. He looked at the envelope that Shadow had passed him under the table labelled 'In case you feel there's no hope.' Sonic had presumed it was something dark, otherwise he would have said it in front of Amy. Slowly he opened the letter and folded it open.

'_If you're reading this, Sonic, it either means that you failed to get the money together, failed to swallow your pride and ask Slayde, or the one I'm hoping it isn't, the human broke his word. What I've wrote in here, is a last ditch move that you should only use if there are __no other__ options. _

_The laws of Chaos are picky, but very very binding. If he won't release her willingly you can't force him to either. However, and this is a dangerous path that even I would avoid, if you are to kill him then you shall inherit all of the people bound to him, every single one of them will be ready at your command. Unfortunately, if you inherit them this way, you cannot release them, as such you will also gain control of their children, and maybe even their children, then they will all be bound to you for as long as you live until they are finally passed to whomever you leave them to upon your death. Only then, through that kind of passing on will they able to be released._

_I tell you this only because you are not an evil person, and even if you suddenly found yourself with thousands of people at your every whim you would still do the right thing._

_I hope I did not give my hard earned faith to the wrong person._

_Good luck faker.'_

Sonic let off a small smile. Shadow really isn't as bad as everyone says he is. He turned back with renown vigour, as his fur coat turned black and he opened the door again with a malicious grin.

"Breaking your word? I didn't expect anything less of a human..." Sonic trailed off as the door shut slowly to screaming.

* * *

"I think I'm actually going to miss this place." Terra stated as they all finished the loading up of the cart. Sonic looked back to it.

"I don't think I am." He returned, the Hedgehog seemed to be really quite cheerful, suddenly Shadow came up to him and pulled him aside by his arm. Terra just stood there and watched, bemused.

"I was wondering if you had to use the note?" He whispered in quite a serious tone, Sonic looked slightly disappointed.

"Yes, I did. It was for the third reason that you guessed." Sonic muttered back, quite annoyed that things didn't turn out differently.

"Ah, so the best reason then." Shadow replied, the blue Hedgehog looked at him confused.

"But you said that was the reason that you hoped it wasn't." Sonic stated, confused. Shadow nodded.

"Yes, because it means that my lack of faith in humankind was correct, as always, but it was the best for you because it meant that you had to have either found the money yourself, which would help you with true appreciation, or that you swallowed your pride and allowed Slayde to give you the money. Making you a better person indirectly either way. Just opening it right away wouldn't have given you either of those experiences." Shadow explained, Sonic nodded slowly, half getting it.

"So basically you think that I opened the envelope for the right reasons at the right time?" Sonic clarified. Shadow smirked and nodded before walking back to the group. Sonic smiled to himself as he walked back to Terra.

The lot of them took one last look to the city that they had been staying in, some longer than others.

"See you Aragot." Slayde shouted as the lot of them started walking. "Ready for an adventure guys? I sure am." He told them merrily as he went jogging ahead.

"This chassis is made of Chaosanium right?" Rage asked mischievously as he pulled the cart along.

"Yeah, and the wheels." Terra replied, quickly looking them over.

"Then I'm not getting left behind!" He called out as he sped up with the cart, running after Slayde faster than any Mobian-made land vehicle would be able to.

"Those idiots doesn't even know where they're going." Shadow commented at the trail of dust, this side of the city seemed particularly dry considering the clouds.

"Do any of us?" Amy asked, shrugging, as she ran after the two, Ebony in toe.

"She has a point there you know." Sonic commented as he sped up holding hands with Terra. Shadow sighed and looked round, just him and the air. He rolled his eyes before letting off a slight smirk and running after them.


	11. 10 The Second Emerald

_The Second Emerald__  
_

The crew had been walking for several days, quite surprised to find that they were to be walking across a desert, where the sun still shone. No platoons from the mobile resistance, nor Aragot were sent here anymore as whenever any were they never returned. None of them were overly fond of the idea of walking over the desert of death, but because several of the bases round Aragot had been destroyed by one group of the mobile resistance the closest ones were across this desert, and none of them could be bothered to walk the long way round which included boggy or mountainous terrain on either side anyway. Despite the fact that the ones on the way to the desert had been destroyed both Shadow and Slayde had voiced their opinion on how it seemed unusual that none of them had been rebuilt.

"I think we should probably set up camp, it's getting dark and I'd rather not risk it for the ones who can't see very well in the dark. There seems to be some unsavoury creatures that come out when the sun goes down." Shadow commanded.

"Come on Shadow, we have enough light to carry on at least one more mile, and if we let the ones who are prone to the heat in the cart we can run and get even further." Slayde chipped in. Rage turned round.

"No, it's far too full for anyone to ride in." He snapped. Slayde backed down.

"Okay, okay. Just saying... But yeah Shadow. We can go a little longer, surely?" Slayde asked. The ebony and crimson Hedgehog gave him a look that basically told him not to argue. "I have a bad feeling about this place though." Slayde told him as he waved his finger round in a circle to indicate the general area before he clicked his fingers and a bagged tent appeared. They all had been given a tent each, save Sonic and Terra whom shared. Unfortunately one of them got wreaked upon the first time they put one up, so Amy and Ebony also volunteered to share. Slayde quickly set up his tent while the others were still getting theirs out. He had put tents up before in his human life, so he knew how to put one up and cursed himself for being too far ahead and them breaking one without him. After that he showed them all how to put it up without breaking it.

"Something definitely feels weird. Yet familiar." Rage commented as he pulled everyone's tent out of the wagon and passed it to them. Shadow too had clicked his fingers and made his appear.

"I expect it from him. As he never shuts up." Shadow commented as he pointed at Slayde who pulled an innocent look and pointed to himself mouthing 'me?'. "But from you as well?" He asked Rage. Rage just shrugged.

"Something has felt odd ever since we got in this desert, it just didn't bother me all that much until now." Rage replied, shrugging. Shadow looked deeply into him with his crimson orbs. Rage stood his ground.

"Fine then, I shall keep watch tonight." He announced as he quickly set up his tent only slightly slower than Slayde, being an extremely fast learner. Slayde shrugged, he doubted he would get any better than that. He sat down on a small rock that came out of the sand. Finally he realised why Shadow had picked this spot for camp, there were a few flat rocks for people to sit on.

"God it's hot." Sonic commented as he sat down on the rock near him, leaving Terra to finish the tent while glaring at the back of his head. "How on earth are you guys coping with it?" Sonic asked them all. Most of them just shrugged, Amy however sat down next to him in the same state.

"I honestly wish I knew too." She commented as Slayde just shrugged.

"We're just quick adapters! Ask Terra how she does it." Slayde motioned as he stood to go and help her put up her and Sonic's tent. "No one steal my place." He called back as he moved between Ebony and Terra trying to help them both.

"Terra?" Sonic called. She peaked out of the tent with an irritated look on her face.

"What?" She asked bluntly, clearly annoyed with him for leaving her to do the tent alone.

"How are you coping with the heat?" Sonic questioned her. She just gave him an irritated look before going back into the tent. "Okay, thanks. That was a good answer." Sonic commented sarcastically. Terra came back out of the tent again after a few seconds.

"I was born and raised in a country where this kind of heat is only slightly hotter than the norm. At least it's windier here." She informed him. "Night time was much warmer however." She told him as she shivered. "The tent's ready."

"Thanks to me!" Slayde announced as he popped round the corner. He looked to the group and stopped in his tracks. "Rage..." He started, Rage looked at him and blinked.

"What?" He asked innocently. Slayde glared at him.

"Move off my rock before I make you." Slayde threatened, Rage just pulled one of his shoes off in reply. Slayde started walking slowly towards Rage as Rage just ignored him.

"No fighting you two." Shadow told them as he came from the other side of the cart. Slayde looked at him and frowned in annoyance. "And he did say that was his rock Rage. You guys do use the shotgun rule right?" Shadow added as he went inside his tent. Slayde smirked smugly at Rage who slowly stood up and sat next to Sonic. Slayde sat back in his previous place. Shadow came back out of the tent and sat down next to Slayde. Putting something down on a rock in front of him. Slayde peaked over Shadow's shoulder. He was fairly certain he'd sit here to use that very rock as a table. That was why he wanted this rock, and he was right to want it. Shadow smoothed the map out slowly. The sun was getting fainter, only a small amount of light was left. "We've got a rough map that's been drawn up by people who have spent a lot of time out of the city walls. This whole area is blank, well yellow, however because no one has crossed it successfully. According to Tails there is an Emerald somewhere in this desert... Of course, there's no way to pin point it exactly, but it's here. I can feel it." Shadow told them all, the whole group was nodding.

"To me the Emerald presence seems... Masked. It's that thing I've been feeling all this time that's dampening it. I think you'd have found it by now otherwise Shadow." Slayde offered. Shadow glared at him.

"And what big bad presence could live in this desert? I doubt that there are many at all that could cope in this place for even days, let alone weeks or months." Shadow retorted. Slayde shrugged.

"I don't know, but it feels familiar to those that attacked us. Those corrupted at the gates." Slayde replied. A slight wind blew the cart and the group as it changed its direction from heading North to heading East. "Tell me that's normal?" Slayde added.

"That just a coincidence." Sonic offered. Shadow shook his head.

"There's no such thing as coincidence." He told him, looking round carefully. "Maybe you were right Slayde, we should have moved a little further. Now you've mentioned it, I can feel it as well. My senses have been dulled too much by that damn shield." Shadow finally agreed.

"Then I'll keep watch with you. We don't want them catching us unaware if they know we're here." Slayde replied. Shadow nodded.

"Everyone in your tents. Don't make a sound." Shadow told them all before grabbing Sonic's arm. "You go in my tent." Shadow told him. Sonic gave him a questioning look. "You know why." He told him in irritation.

"Dude, it's way too hot for that." Sonic replied before ripping his arm out of Shadow's grip and heading into his and Terra's tent before zipping it behind him.

"If I hear a peep from that tent I'm dragging him out myself. Pheromones could attract them here. Not to mention the God damn noise." Shadow told Slayde in irritation.

"Rather you than me my friend, I don't want to see that at all." Slayde replied as he grinned. Shadow felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Can I stay as well. It's way too hot in that tent." Amy asked him. Shadow looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

"You know full well that the temperature will plummet soon. Then you'll be too cold." Shadow replied. "Being in your tent will keep you warm." Shadow replied. Amy gave him an irritated look.

"You'll find I can deal with cold a great deal better than heat thank you." Amy retorted, Shadow looked at her sternly for a few seconds, unsure as to what the best course of action would be. Slayde, who had snuck behind her started nodding vigorously causing Shadow to look at him questioningly. Amy turned and he had stopped nodding, moving to clean his claws before he was seen. Amy turned back to Shadow. "Well?" She asked. Slayde mouthed.

'Let her or she won't shut up about it.' In the background behind her. Shadow frowned.

"Fine, but you go in if you get too cold." Shadow warned her. Amy nodded happily. There was to be no camp fire tonight due to the possible threat, but the clear sky and full moon would make everything visible as soon as the sun set anyway.

"Oops, though I was meaning to speak to Shadow alone." Slayde mumbled, seemingly to himself. Shadow could hear it though. Amy looked over to him.

"What was that?" Amy asked him. Slayde shrugged and she gave him a dirty look. Shadow looked deep in thought.

"If it's about the Emerald you already have, Rose can know." He told him, Slayde smirked and pulled out the yellow Chaos Emerald from his quills.

"Perceptive as always Shadow." Slayde replied as the Emerald glowed slightly, as if calling out to one of its brothers or sisters. Slayde quickly looked to Shadow. "How close would you say the other Emerald is?"

"I'm unsure, but it's moving. As it does the feeling is getting slowly clearer." Shadow answered slowly, closing his eyes and feeling it out.

"Which means that it's getting closer." Slayde commented rather awkwardly. Shadow's eyes snapped open.

"Correct." He confirmed immediately. Amy looked at Shadow unsure.

"That's not a good thing is it?" Amy asked half rhetorically, already knowing the answer. Slayde shook his head. Shadow was staring off into the west, making Slayde look.

"That looks like a rather normal dust cloud." Slayde commented sarcastically.

"And it's moving pretty damn fast." Shadow replied to his statement as Amy squinted and blinked in the general direction that they were looking in.

"I don't see anything." Amy announced to them both. Slayde looked at her.

"That doesn't mean nothing is there. Wake everyone up. Or just get them out of the tents. Tell Rage to try and keep the cart hidden." He told her anxiously. "It might just be nothing, but as the saying goes 'it's better to be safe'." Amy quickly ran to the tents while Slayde and Shadow both watched the distance. Quite quickly the dust cloud grew and became visible to the rest as they got out their tents. Rage quickly grabbed the cart and moved it behind one of the larger sand dunes, the roof was slightly visible to the group but not by much, as he shouted over the sandy hill.

"I'll stay back here and keep an eye on it." Could be heard as the others finished getting ready. Sonic was sitting on one of the rocks in a hot sweat still but the rest of them were standing. Just as the cloud of dust was mere meters away, the sun fell behind the world and shrouded the desert in cold and darkness. Suddenly there was a gushing wind as sand got blown up into everyone's faces. If the sudden change hadn't already blinded them then the dust would have. That is of course the theory if you're a normal Mobian.

"They're here!" Shadow shouted out as he could see several shadowy shapes within the dust. He found that four of them were trying to jab him with something sharp he could only presume were spears. He expertly dodged them all before pulling one out of one of their hands. "And they have weapons!" He called as he knocked over the one who he had stolen the spear off by hitting him in the face with it.

"I think we noticed that!" Slayde shouted as a clang of metal was heard to the entire group. Semi soft cutting noises were heard all over as well as scuffling and blows coming to one another. Everyone was fighting, but most of them couldn't see that well. "Sonic duck!" Slayde shouted as another soft 'thock' was heard followed by two things falling to the ground, the first notably louder than the other. The attacking group suddenly retreated, presumably to regroup.

"Everyone okay?" Shadow shouted as he coughed. There was a lot of sand in the air. The sound of choking filled the air as Amy, Sonic and Terra couldn't cope with the amount of sand in the air. Slayde started running in circles, causing a draft big enough to clear the sand.

"Yeah, no one's missing. I think I got three of them." Slayde replied as he looked to the three piles of sand then out to the distance. The dust cloud fleeing in the opposite direction. "Should we go after them?" He asked, looking to Shadow.

"No. We can't afford to split up in case they attack again." Shadow replied as he brushed sand out of his fur in irritation. He looked over to the dune Rage had hidden behind. "Rage, you can come out now." Shadow called as he brushed sand from the inside of his ears. After a moments silence Shadow stopped and looked at the dune. "Rage?" Shadow questioned as Slayde walked behind it.

"Shadow!" Slayde shouted out in what sounded like frustration and worry. Shadow quickly came round the corner to find Rage unconscious and the cart nowhere in sight.

"Damn it!" Shadow cursed as he slammed his fist into the dune, causing part of it to collapse. Whilst Slayde used Chaos to pour water onto Rage to wake him up. He sat up quickly, looking round wildly before he slapped his hand to his face and laid back down. He swore.

"A couple came from behind and got the jump on me." Rage muttered angrily. Slayde sighed.

"Guess we got to go get them. They couldn't have gone too far." Slayde commented before he started running in the direction the enemies left in. Shadow nodded to Amy who followed behind him immediately. Rage tried to stand, but fell from a dizzy spell.

"Sonic, think you can look after things here?" Shadow asked. Sonic nodded to him, Shadow smirked and pulled himself ready to run when Rage grabbed his arm. Shadow looked down to him, his eyes burning with anger.

"We need that cart. Please get it back." Rage begged Shadow. Shadow looked at him with a slight suspicion, but nodded as the black and blue hedgehog dropped his arm, he looked slightly concussed. Shadow ran in a stream of sand after the other two. After half a minute he caught up with the two of them. They were getting close to the dust cloud that was bigger than it was before. Slayde clicked his fingers and his sword appeared in his hands. Shadow finally noticed the sword for what it looked like. He had only seen it in the heat of battle before and because of that fact, he hadn't paid it much attention. To simply say sword wouldn't be precisely right. It was a katana, fairly simple in look with an almost pitch black blade that, despite its shade, sparkled like a thousand diamonds were embedded within it from the moonlight. The handle bore no guard and the grip was also simple, woody-black leather bound round presumably the same metal the blade was made of as anything lesser would be too weak. Shadow felt slightly awed, a rare thing for him.

"Just how did you acquire that sword?" Shadow questioned, voice steady despite the speed they were going at and the rarely felt emotion in his heart. Slayde didn't turn back to answer, he just kept running.

"Now really isn't the time Shadow. Ask me that as soon as we've dealt with these jokers." Slayde replied. Shadow looked up intently and realised they were practically on top of their attackers.

Slayde flung himself into the sand storm before the other two, followed immediately by Shadow then finally Amy. For a few seconds it was hectic. Amy could see no one through the cloud of dust, yet the Curruptians moved as if there was no sand there. Luckily they weren't the only ones.

"Amy, duck!" Shadow shouted. A foot flying over her head as she did so. The sound of clanging could be heard, the dust cloud was starting to settle as the group has forced the Curruptians to slow down. Despite this however some of them were pulling away with the cart. Now that they had adjusted to the light it was easy to see that they had two carts. Theirs and another one that looked like it was falling to pieces. Shadow was quick to assume that it must have been their own cart, holding the Emerald that he was sure he sensed off in the distance. He heard Slayde laughing off in the distance, but paid no heed to it. There were too many enemies to deal with and not enough of them to cover all sides. He found Amy at his back. She was short of breath and he could tell it was from the sand that was still settling as the carts continued being pulled without their guard. The laughter of Slayde faded, meaning that Slayde must have been following them. Shadow would just have to concentrate on this battle and attempt to rely on Slayde, as much as he hated relying on other people the other Hedgehog was pretty good with that sword.

"I can see a bit better now Shadow, I should be fine." Amy told him with a slight edge of shortness of breath. The dust cloud was obviously still getting to her lungs, but if her eyes were able to see through it then the next part should be easy.

"Then you take that side and I'll take this side." Shadow told her. When they had first entered the dust cloud he had counted about fifty enemies. Now he could only see about twenty five. So he was sure that Amy had the lesser amount. He darted forwards, moving too fast for them to register. By the time they had started moving he had already snapped the neck of two of them. He spun a kick round, his instinct warning him someone was attacking from behind. His foot collided with the wood of a spear, sending it flying out of the attackers hand and through the neck of a nearby Curruptian. He slid forward, quickly dispatching of this one by snapping his neck before doing a back flip and landing behind two Curruptians that had charged while he was distracted, a quick Chaos Spear to each of their faces as they turned quickly finished off another two of the original twenty five leaving nineteen left in a matter of five seconds. Shadow took in a deep breath. Most of the sand had settled now, even a normal person would be able to see well in this moonlight. His eyes scanned the ten in front of him. Shadow vanished in a flash of green before appearing between two of the Curruptians behind him. He pulled their spear out their hands and threw them swiftly into two opposite him before grabbing the backs of their heads as they turned and smashing their faces into each other so hard that it knocked the both of them out, noses streaming blood. Turning on his hover shoes he quickly jumped far higher than usual, allowing him to avoid several spears that were thrown at him. Cussing followed from all those who had missed and five now unarmed Curruptians charged forwards to where Shadow was about to land. Shadow prepared himself quickly, kicking one of the spears that stuck into the ground pointing directly up across. It hit two of the Curruptians in the chest sideways, winding them. He landed badly and lost his balance as the three others managed to close in on him and a small brawl started, and finished just as fast as Shadow kicked one in the face, breaking his neck, while using his arms to snap a different ones head round, he landed on his front, arms already caught his fall his pushed himself back up again. A single one was left standing there when he got back to his feet, so fast it had been that the two he had winded earlier only just came to him holding their presumably broken ribs with one hand. Shadow grinned, he had been starting to miss this kind of battle. He loosed another Chaos Spear at the one unwounded one as he jumped at the other two, another two unarmed coming in from the circle to help the survivors out as the armed ones attempted to move into his blind spots. He punched the two injured ones in the ribs, causing them further pain before grabbing the both of them by the face, picking them up and slamming them down into the sand so fast it didn't have time to soften their landing in the slightest, cracking the back of their heads open and, rendering them unconscious and bleeding to death. He didn't get a seconds break before a spear came flying at him from behind, Shadow barely moved out of the way in time, the sharp point of the spear grazing his shoulder, cutting his t-shirt and causing him to bleed the amount that might seem like a bad wound to anyone normal. Shadow knew that kind of damage was just superficial on him however as he watched the thrown spear hit a Curruptian square in the chest. He spun, expecting the Curruptian who had just missed to charge, instead however he found another spear inches away from him which he used his lightening reactions to catch before spinning on the spot again to stab one, two, three Curruptians before it got stuck in one of their messed up bodies. There was only one left attempting to use hand to hand combat with him now who attempted to back away from Shadow before tripping over one of his dead comrades backwards and hitting himself on the back of the head with the wooden end of an upturned spear, dazing him but not knocking him unconscious. Shadow was about to finish the job when two spears were stabbed at him at the same time, one of them going through his shoulder and the other one missing by a thread. Shadow growled loudly in pain before he pulled up his right arm and grabbed the spear that had missed spinning it so fast it was not visible into the side of the head of the one that hit him, the shaft of the spear shattering on impact, killing the Curruptian instantly. He looked round, dropping the broken spear and, holding both his hands up in defence, noting that his right arm didn't even move. The spear had lodged itself right through an important nerve. Shadow cussed. This wound wasn't quite as superficial, but at least it wasn't lethal. His previous wound on his shoulder had already healed, Shadow's breathing had become a little heavier from the pain as blood stained his t-shirt from the currently filled hole in the middle of his shoulder. He looked at the four that were remaining standing before glancing at the one that was on the floor, so dazed that cartoon stars were all but flying round his head. Only one of the four remained armed. While the other three that were standing were attempting to come up with some kind of strategy. Presumably they were going to try and get on his right side now that he could no longer defend himself properly. That is of course if you factor out Shadow's abnormally strong legs anyway. Shadow moved into a defensive position, going on the offensive with just the one hand was practically suicide. Although he knew he probably would have tried going offensive if it wasn't for that one person who was armed. He immediately knew his target.

Shadow gave a quick glance down to the bleeding mess that was his shoulder. He was surprised by how close it was to the top of his lungs and he thanked the Gods that it hadn't burst his lung. Blood in a lung was never fun, even if you had little to no need to breath. The Curruptian on the floor had finally stood up, he was walking with a slight wobble, but besides that seemed mostly okay. Shadow started charging energy in himself, as the others were yet to move. "_Chaos..._" He muttered under his breath, saying the move always did boost its power. The five Curruptians all heard him and three of them dashed at him too fast from him to finish using the move. He felt the energy ebb away as the three attacked, being too relentless from him to do more than defend with just one hand. The three suddenly split as a spear from the other came shooting towards him. Shadow didn't have enough time to react, and without thinking a word popped into his head. Although he had never heard of the move before it was worth a shot, his instincts never lied to him. "_Boost._" He finished both his arms shooting up and stopping the spear from hitting him, he pulled it out the Curruptians hands with his right hand, punching him in the face with his left hand before using the spear to skewer two Curruptians at the same time. He held both his arms up in defence at the remaining three, the one he just punch recovering still. Shadow jumped at him, twisting his neck and finished him off. He pulled up both arms again, noting that only one of them came up again. Whatever move he had just used had worn off, likely because he would need to practice it to be able to use it longer. He knew he would have to discuss it with Slayde later. As much as he hated to admit it, the Hedgehog knew more Chaos moves than him, even if Shadow was far better at using them and his energy efficiently. The two left looked round at all their dead allies before unexpectedly turning and running. Shadow quickly threw several Chaos Spears at them, one of them fell to the ground (presumable the one who hit his head), but the other one carried on running. Shadow looked to his shoulder before falling to his knees. He had lost too much blood to chase after him. He grimaced as he looked at the spear protruding from his shoulder. Grabbing the spear right beneath the point for leverage he clenched his teeth before he pulled it out in one decisive movement. He quickly pulled off his t-shirt as the blood flow slowly weakened and tore it into the longest strip he could manage with a single hand before using his home made bandage to stem the blood flow as much as possible. Not doing that good of a job on himself with only one hand he sighed, taking solace in the fact that it should have healed in several hours anyway. He slowly stood, turning to Rose. She had come out her fight in a much better way than him, but she seemed to be struggling in her final hand to hand combat. Shadow watched intently as the obviously tired Rose slowly got the upper hand and finally finished him off by knocking him out. Shadow through that it was sweet how she refused to kill anything sentient, but it wasn't always practical. When she collapsed, panting, he gave her a small smile as she looked at him before he started walking towards some of the Curruptians he had simple knocked out as they were waking up. He pulled one of the many spears that had missed out of the ground and began systematically checking that they were all dead if their neck hadn't been broken by stabbing them through that very same place. By the time he had finished with what was on his side he only had one spear left to go and take care of what Rose hadn't killed. He quickly finished them all off, ignoring Amy's futile and tired objections.

"Rose, I know you don't like it but if it makes you feel any better they are barely even people anymore. Robotnik took care of that." Shadow told her, she pulled a face that was mixed with disapproval, anger and sadness.

"Unfortunately, I guess you're right." Amy replied reluctantly. Killing wasn't something she'd ever be fond of. "I only fought ten and yet I struggled on that last fight Shadow. I was too tired. I need to get stronger."

"Don't worry about it Rose, all in due time, it was very dusty. You'll get stronger and one day, who knows? You'll surpass me!" Shadow joked. Amy just looked at him, almost shocked.

"Did you just make a joke Shadow?" Amy asked, shock visible on her face, but obvious amusement laying behind her eyes. Shadow shrugged.

"Yeah, I think I just did." Shadow replied, sounding just as shocked himself. He was starting to find it too easy to relax round Rose, and it was scaring him. For the first time he felt that emotion since falling to Mobius while his super form left him. Fear.

"Wait, where's Slayde?" Amy questioned. Shadow looked over towards the direction he knew that they went, too worn out to follow.

* * *

Slayde was closing in so he stopped his maniacal laughter, not even sure what he was laughing about in the first place, it was probably the adrenaline. He wasn't completely sure how big the force that went with the carts was. But he had counted round fifty when they first hit the cloud, they killed about 10 on the initial attack before having to split into two groups. He was certain that Shadow managed to distract twenty five-ish of them, but Rose was too far to see how many she had, all he knew was that it was more than five. Which would leave him with a maximum of twelve including the two that must have been pulling the carts and a minimum of three as he doubted whoever the leader of the group was would have left the carts unguarded to fight the other two. He took in a deep breath as he made it to the dust cloud, knowing that he wouldn't be able to breathe properly when he made it inside. Luckily he seemed to be able to hold his breath for a long time, though he had never tried to time himself he was sure it was over five minutes. Just as he caught up with the cart, four of them jumped off, two had the usual spears, but the other two had swords. Slayde was forced to slow down from the appearance of fighters, but not before he took off one of the spear wielders heads. The carts started pulling ahead as the three kept up his pace, one of them tried to thrust him through with the sword, which he quickly parried before running his blade up along the sword, Slayde's katana hit the guard on the Curruptian swords handle, making the Curruptian grin before he realised that Slayde's blade sliced right through it and then his arm right after, forcing him to move his other hand out the way and dodge before he lost both his hands. The other sword wielding Curruptian let down a massive over head swing right at Slayde who heard it moving through the air. He blocked the swing with the blunt side of his katana, causing the Curruptians sword to crack where the impact was, Slayde kicked him in the chest, knocking him back before answering with a swing of his own aimed at the Curruptians neck. The Curruptian lifted his sword to block it just in time, but due to the fissure left on his blade it simple snapped into multiple pieces, barely slowing Slayde's attack which cut clean through his neck. Slayde's instincts suddenly kicked in and he quickly dodged with a Chaos Control. Putting him to the back of the group as they came to a complete stand still, allowing him to see that the spear had been stabbed into where he was just seconds ago. He clicked his fingers and a large knife that looked just a like a miniature version of his katana appeared in his right hand, left still took up by his katana. Before the Curruptian had even realised Slayde had teleported out of the way Slayde had thrown the knife expertly through his head the last one collapsed. Slayde breathed a sigh of relief as he looked behind him for the one he had merely injured before he suddenly heard some more footsteps near him. The Curruptian missing his right hand was running at him with his own knife in his left. Slayde smirked, clearly he knew nothing of Chaos Closet. Slayde went to summon his weapon back before deciding against it and swinging his katana which was surprisingly well blocked. The Curruptian blatantly had some skill with a knife. Maybe he had trained with that before he was forced onto the sword? Slayde was unsure. A blade shooting towards his head snapped him out of his thoughts. He dodged and knocked his wrist the blade, trying to cut off his other hand, luckily for the Curruptian he managed to pull back in time and backed off for a second. Slayde dared a quick glance at the trail the carts had left. It had all but faded, and as soon as the dust settled it would disappear before he could follow. Slayde swore.

"I'm sorry, I was enjoying this." Slayde started as he swung the katana towards the neck of the last remaining Curruptian. The Curruptian pulled Slayde's weapon up to block, grinning, just for it to vanish before Slayde katana took off his head. "But I just haven't got the time." He finished as the two pieces of body fell to the ground. He looked to the trail and started running faster than he had ever run. He had to catch them up before they found reinforcements. Else he was screwed.

It only took two minutes for him to catch up. He assumed that the four that went to slow him down were helping pull the carts before and that was the only reason they were going so fast. Someone standing on top of one of the carts noticed him and turned round. The carts slowed down to a complete stop as he approached and a Curruptian (with the other two flanking either shoulder in a triangle) that was dressed better, as he had clothes instead of rags, stepped behind the carts so he was facing Slayde who had just stopped ten or some meters away. Short enough a distance for Slayde to leap in a second if need be. Slayde actually took in what type of Mobian he was due to the dressage, a dark grey Wolf with green eyes.

"I'm impressed and disappointed." The well dressed Curruptian started in a deep, slow voice that had an edge that made him sound like he was permanently sneering, Slayde just stayed still and watched him intently. Ready to strike. "I'm impressed that you and your friends managed to take down fifty of my men. You even took down my second and third in command." He paused, as if for effect.

_The two with the swords_, Slayde registered silently, not making a movement, not even breathing. The Curruptian seemed disappointed with Slayde's reaction, or lack thereof.

"And disappointed because they lost to such weaklings." He concluded tauntingly. Slayde continued not to move, refusing to so much as blink at the insult. The Curruptians eyes narrowed. "I'm glad that you followed alone. I can feel that you have an Emerald on you, his highness is so desperate to regain them after that blundering renegade lost the six we collected you see." Slayde finally moved, slightly surprised at the Curruptians words.

"You have a king?" Slayde questioned. The well dressed Curruptian smirked.

"Ah, finally a reaction. Yes we have a king. I am in his royal guard. Third strongest in all the land, The Collector, the kings third in command and acquirer of rare and valuable gems. We have even recovered a single time stone. So I am looking for those too." The Collector informed Slayde. Slayde nodded silently. If the time stones were recoverable that would be a way to stop all this mess from have ever happening in the first place without consequence. "Now then." He clicked his fingers and the two ran to either side of Slayde, about fifty meters from each other. "With Chaos as my witness; I challenge you, sword wielding Hedgehog, to a one on one dual. To the death. Anything goes but Chaos Control. Do you accept the challenge?"

"I do." Slayde replied simply and calmly. Holding his sword in his left hand only. Suddenly a blue ellipse appeared on the ground the furthest points where either Curruptian was as soon the ellipse was made however they quickly made their way back to the carts and began pulling them at the same sort of pace a walking horse might. The making of the ellipse blatantly caused them to become fatigued.

"Don't even try to escape the fighting ring to go after them or-" The Collector started, but Slayde cut him off.

"I know what this is. We doing this or what?" Slayde started bluntly. The Collector smiled.

"Then on the count of three. One." He started lazily.

"Two." Slayde continued. The Collector smiled at him with a mixture of amusement and maliciousness.

"Three!" They both shouted at the same time, jumping at each other with shocking speed. Slayde swung his sword at The Collector, but he managed to duck beneath it and give Slayde a quick hit to the gut. Slayde quickly stumbled backwards to prevent himself from being hit off guard. He managed to hit Slayde's wrist however, making Slayde fumble the blade before managing to knee him in the side. Slayde gripped his katana with both hands. This fight was actually going to be a challenge.

The two of them paused. Staring intently at each other. "_Chaos Spear._" Slayde suddenly shouted, flying a Spear in The Collectors direction before leaping at him again. He dodged the spear and didn't quite predict the double attack right, wide eyed because he knew what the sword could do, there was a flash of yellow light as Slayde brought down his blade that caused it to go flying out his hand and outside the arena. Slayde looked to it, knowing that he could retrieve it, if only the damn barrier hadn't been put up that was. Looking back he realised what the flash was. The Collector had powered up into super form. It looked odd to Slayde, who had only seen the super forms of Echidna's and Hedgehogs. Yet there he was. Pale yellow, almost cream, fur shining with power; his eyes now red. Slayde did the other thing he could, he also powered up fur turning a silvery-gold, eyes turning purple. The ellipse suddenly expanded itself, getting ten times as big in a single second as the two of them hovered just above the ground. "Bring it on then." Slayde told him calmly.

* * *

"What the hell is going on over there." Shadow commented as a flash of blue light up the horizon in the distance. The rest of the group had caught them up right after Shadow had finished bandaging himself and he was now fully healed because Rose recovered enough to use _Chaos Heal_ on his wound to make the outside skin stop any external bleeding. She couldn't however restore the blood he had lost, so he still felt absolutely drained compared to normal. Rage was leaning on Sonic's shoulders (Sonic still disliked the guy, but since meeting Terra he had softened up to him considerably) as they walked, still too weak to continue. He carried on telling them that one of them had drained all of his Chaos Energy, one that was apparently well dressed unlike all of the other members of that team. Shadow knew it must have been the leader, but he had only heard of someone draining someone else's energy once... and that was with a Chaos Emerald. It was possible that the person in question had been born with that as a special ability. As special gifts in Mobians were quite common. Though not normally quite as showy as Shadow's and Sonic's natural born speed, or Knuckles' natural born strength. They were often more subtle, like Tails' incredible intelligence.

"I don't know, but I can't sense Slayde anymore." Sonic stated in a slight panic. Shadow took a deep breath.

"Can you sense the other one?" Shadow asked, annoyed that he had to rely on someone else because of his weakened sense. Sonic stared intently at the spot the light was coming from for a few seconds, Shadow looked at him irritated. If it were him he'd have been able to check this ten times by now.

"No." Terra answered instead of Sonic. Sonic gave her an irritated look. "Sorry honey, you were taking too long."

"Oh damn." Shadow muttered. Half the group stopped to stare at Shadow for a moment before realising everyone else was still walking. "I think they're entered a death match. We've got to hurry. I want to see this." He finished as he walked faster. Terra looked at him with surprise, where as Sonic got excitable.

"Me and Terra could quickly run up and help him!" He exclaimed, looking to Ebony for her to carry Rage instead. It wasn't Shadow who replied, but Terra.

"You can't, that blue thing is basically a cage. No one but the challenged can enter, and another or anything in there that isn't gets thrown out. It's an ability that takes at least two people plus the two fighters. The none fighters cast it round the fighters to prevent interference and it's normally done for honour. Why Slayde's doing one I have no idea." Terra explained. Shadow nodded but otherwise remained quiet in his walking, his energy too low to waste it on talking.

"So why are we headed there?" Sonic asked rather bluntly. Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Don't you want those Emeralds?" He questioned, breathing heavy for Shadow. The blue light flashed and then notably widened. "Hurry!"

* * *

"Bring it on then." Slayde told him calmly. The Collector just smirked at him before they both darted at each other at blinding speeds, each of them smashing fist into face with a clap of thunder. Both flew backwards from the impact, Slayde stopped after a second but The Collector went all the way to the wall of the arena and smashed into it. It was harder than anything natural could be as it didn't budge a millimetre. The Collector growled before closing the quarter kilometre distance between them in a second. Slayde had his knife in his left hand. Looking at it, it was a bit too big to be a knife yet not quite big enough to be a sword, it was just a slight bit shorter than half the size of his katana which made it so that the handle was almost perfectly the size for his hand, it almost looked as if his aura was including the blade. He was holding it down like a dagger, sharp edge on the outside, ready to stab at a seconds notice. He lunged, stabbing the dagger like object right at The Collectors face. The Collector smirked, and held up his weak hand to block it and prove a point. The knife went straight through his hand causing him to yank his hand away in agony, which was a bad move because he practically caused his hand to be sliced in half. Slayde was relentless, and didn't give him time to recover as he slashed at the Curruptian, causing multiple small scratches up and down his body before The Collector could get away. Yet as The Collector jumped back, Slayde grabbed what remained of The Collectors fingers, fully pulling away what would have possibly been fixable for the mutant race to fix. The Collector growled, his feral instincts taking over for a second as his Chaos levels surged. He moved faster than Slayde could react and blasted him with a move that Slayde hadn't used for a long time.

"_Chaos Lance._" He screamed, the force of it took Slayde to the side of the area and slammed him against it with raw energy pouring out. By the time The Collector had regained control of his body and mind he was panting with the Energy expenditure. The smoke of the powerful beam cleared to reveal Slayde floating there, various cuts and bruises all over his body, also panting. All of his clothes were destroyed in the power of the blast, revealing the weight suit he had been given.

"Right. Now you've done it." Slayde told him, out of breath. The Collector to a breath laughed at him.

"You're as out of it as I am! What on earth do you think you have up your sleeve?" He taunted. Slayde looked at him calmly and relaxed his body.

"Disable weight suit." He muttered calmly. He breathed in deeply and smirked. "That's better." He told him, no shortness of breath at all. "I've had that thing on ten times gravity this whole time. Not only has it been weighing me down, but draining my energy to do so!" Slayde explained to the gob smacked Curruptian. Slayde rushed at him. The speed difference was frightening as he slashed off his unwounded arm and went for the finishing blow.

"Wait!" The Collector shouted. Slayde paused, knowing that he wouldn't be able to do anything to resist even if he did leave him to live ask for his final requests. "Allow me one moment to speak to your friends. Then finish me off... If the blood loss doesn't beat you there." He added as his super form forced itself off, luckily there were only a couple metres from the ground so the Curruptian landed just fine. Slayde looked over to Shadow just outside the arena and nodded once. The Collector walked swiftly, Slayde right behind him, to Shadow. "Hello Shadow. My title is The Collector and my king wished to duel with you. To prove that he is the ultimate life. For he is stronger than any of you." He finished as he fell to his knees. Shadow just rolled his eyes. "Finish me." He said calmly to Slayde. Slayde walked up to him slowly holding his blade the other way.

"No!" Shouted Rose. Slayde looked up to her and paused, blade aloft.

"Rose, he's going to die of blood loss, this'll be much faster and less painful. Besides, unless one of us dies, this thing won't ever go away." Slayde indicated the translucent blue wall. With that Slayde stabbed him in the back of the neck and took the final blow as Rose buried her head in Shadow's chest fur. All the killing was really getting to her. The blue ellipse faded out. Slayde quickly laid out the dead Curruptian, arms over his chest and closed his eyes. "No place to bury him, so don't get too close." Slayde told them all. Everyone but Amy took a couple steps back.

"What you going to do?" She asked, Shadow grabbed her and pulled her back into the way she was when Slayde finished him off, but with his arms round her this time, presumably to keep her there, but Slayde suspected another reason too.

"_Chaos Inferno._" Mighty flames leapt from Slayde's hands, cremating the body and turning some of the surrounding sand to glass. "Right! Carriages to save!" He announced before running in the direction he saw them leave. Seconds later he realised he was being followed, a quick glance told him it was Sonic. He gave Sonic a quick nod to make sure he knew he was there and continued running. A minute of following the obvious trail later it started to fade, but lucky just as it got almost impossible to see, a small dust cloud was visible on the horizon. They obviously had recovered at least some of their energy. Slayde and Sonic kept up the pace and soon enough they caught up with them. The two Curruptians started begging for their lives the second they saw Slayde. Just as Slayde was about to kill them Sonic objected.

"Slayde they're unarmed and not even fighting back." Sonic told him, Slayde looked to Sonic, the he looked back at them with a mixture of hatred and annoyance.

"If you swear on your lives you will not go and alert the king of our presence in these lands. Then I shall let you go." Slayde told them as he pointed his katana at the both of them in turn.

"I swear!" They both stuttered as fast as they could before they both back away slowly, going in a sprint as soon as they were about 15 metres away. Running in a completely different direction to where they were originally going, or where they had come from.

"Let's get the carts back to the others." Slayde muttered. Sonic didn't reply. "Sonic?"

"You might want to see this Slayde." Sonic's voice came from the front of their cart. Slayde sighed and came round, to find four people standing there rather than one. One was the little one known as Prosha, the other was the taller one known as Alpha. The last one was a Curruptian fox. He was a black fox with a white muzzle and white belly fur, stitches were all over the visible part of his body and one big one was over the left side of his face, going over his eyelid. His eyes were light blue but left half of half of his left eye was red, coinciding perfectly with the stitch on his face.

Yet he had a friendly look in his eyes compared to any of the others.

"Well aren't you an interesting thing." Slayde commented, looking at him. He looked back petrified.

"Don't you dare huwt him or I'll tell Rage!" Prosha exclaimed. Slayde ignored her.

"Your body got caught up in the corruption like many others, but your mind was never took over by it, well. Not enough for you to lose yourself. Am I right?" Slayde questioned. The Fox boy nodded. "You got a name?"

"Noir, sir." Noir replied, an edge of fear on his voice. Likely because he'd seen the way Slayde had treat other Curruptians.

"I won't hurt you." Slayde told him. The fox didn't seem to ease up at all.

"You're scaring him!" Prosha shouted at him, Slayde barely paid her any notice.

"Sonic, I think we should tell this to the others when the time is right, rather than as soon as we get back. That way you can decide whether you want the others to know you know or not." Slayde requested. "Maybe get Rage to tell them. Now it's obvious why he's so protective of the cart." Slayde finished as he rooted inside of the Curruptians cart. Nothing of interest was in there, but Slayde did find a Chaos Emerald. "Shadow's going to be in a good mood when we get back." Slayde mentioned.

"Why?" Sonic asked. Slayde popped his head out and grinned.

"Green Chaos Emerald." He told him as he held it out for him to see. "You four help me get any food they have in here, you never know when we next need to stock up, or where we'll get the chance." He told them as he put all the food to the front. Several minutes later they were putting the three back in the cart. Sonic was round the front and Noir went in last. Just before Noir got inside however Slayde quickly pulled Noir aside while they couldn't see.

"Why are you scared of me in particular?" Slayde asked hurriedly. Wanting to get him inside before anyone noticed.

"Because you're The Collector." Noir muttered in fear. Slayde lifted him into the cart.

"Don't tell anyone." Slayde commanded as he closed the flap.


	12. 11 King of the Curruptians

_The King of the Curruptians__  
_

"Are you not worrying at all?" Amy asked. The sun was overhead again, the Emeralds that they had were safely hidden by Shadow and Slayde.

"Rose, if I got worried every time someone threatened me, I'd probably have had a heart attack by now." Shadow replied, he obviously wasn't bothered by what The Collector had told him.

"When we making camp?" Slayde suddenly asked from the back. Shadow looked up to the sky. It was once again getting dark, the presence of the Curruptians had lightened, but not lifted. "You might not be worried, but that Curruptian wasn't messing round. They were collecting Chaos Emeralds for their King. Judging by what he said, I don't think that was the first one he found. Which means..."

"That we need to go and find this king?" Rage chipped in as he pulled along the cart.

"Yes, I have to agree. This 'King' of theirs might have more than one patrol out looking for these Emeralds. There could be multiple Emeralds heading to him right now." Shadow concurred. The walking group continued in silence for almost a half hour before Amy sighed and spoke.

"If you could take a stab in the dark. Which direction would you say it'd be in?" Amy asked no one, and yet everyone at the same time.

"That way." Shadow and Slayde both announced in unison. Both pointing to the North East.

"No such thing as coincidence?" Sonic announced echoing what was said the day before, leaning on the cart from the heat.

"You're seriously still too hot?" Amy asked. Sonic nodded to her, panting and sweating profusely. "I got used to it already." She finished, shrugging. Sonic gave her a heavy look.

"How?" He questioned in annoyance. Amy shrugged again, causing Sonic to sigh in exasperation before he stood up straight watching the others in front of him.

"You know Slayde. You've been carrying that rucksack and yet everything else you've put in the Chaos Closet." Amy pointed out. Everyone looked at her or Slayde. Rage and Sonic were looking at Amy, the rest at Slayde.

"What's one of those when it's at home?" Sonic questioned, panting. Amy smirked.

"It's just a place to store things. So yeah. Slayde. Care to explain?" Amy demanded. Slayde looked at the whole group looking at him.

"It's just something that Tails asked me to keep safe. Why you all looking at me as if I'm hiding something? Why don't we have a look inside this cart?" Slayde deterred as he tried to pull back the sheet of the cart. Rage grabbed his arm and growled at him as he got close. Shadow sighed at the front of the group.

"It's a good point. After that first attack, we should put all the cards out on the table. I know you're hiding three people in there. And I honestly don't know who the third one is." Shadow confessed. Slayde nodded and stuck his tongue out at Rage childishly.

"I thought you might have noticed. I was thinking of mentioning it after last time because, the longer they stay in there, the bigger the risk they will get hurt from only him protecting them." Slayde continued. Shadow looked to Rage who finally let go of Slayde's arm. A look of anger and defeat on his face. The curtain got pulled back by someone, presumably Alpha, who was in there.

"How long have you known?" The semi-recognisable voice of Alpha came from within the shadows of the carts sheets as he jumped out, a little bothered by the brightness, but seemingly fine with the heat.

"From the beginning." Shadow confirmed calmly. Prosha came out immediately afterwards, arms crossed and grumpy. It seemed like the heat was bothering her. Finally Noir came out, what he was, was obvious to everyone. He was half wearing one of the suits (so his chest was currently on display) that Rage, Alpha and Prosha had on, along with Slayde under his usual clothing. Most of the group instinctively moved away from him, whether from the copious amounts of scars or due to what he was, as he jumped down from the cart, avoiding getting too close to Slayde. Slayde and Shadow didn't move, and Sonic only did because he didn't want everyone to know he already knew. Whereas Rage moved himself between the three that just revealed themselves and Shadow with his arms stretched across as if protecting them all from him.

"Come now Rage, you can't stop all of them." Alpha commented. Rage looked to the three and then back to the rest of the group. Rage sighed and lowered his arms. Shadow gave Slayde a questioning look, and Slayde nodded.

"So about that sword Slayde?" Shadow asked as he turned and started walking, whatever silent conversation between Shadow and Slayde had taken place, it was as if nothing had happened.

"Ah yes, I did say I would explain that-" Slayde started, realisation dawned on Shadow's face as he cut him off.

"Speaking of explaining, you never did explain that pride thing." Shadow commented casually. Slayde shrugged.

"I said I'd tell you if you won, that was obviously a draw." Slayde commented cheekily, he was obviously joking.

"I'll show you draw." Shadow replied in a growl.

"Whoa, whoa! I was joking! Joking! I'll explain it all. Okay?" Slayde quickly saved, Shadow nodded quietly, making Slayde realise that Shadow was only playing as well. Slayde was starting to realise the extent of how much of an effect Amy's friendship was having on the Ultimate Life Form. The whole group had gone quiet listening to the two of them. "The sword first though. Okay?" Slayde asked. Shadow just nodded again. "And no interruptions!" He quickly mentioned looking at Rage. Rage just shrugged at him.

"Back when I was human I already knew a fair bit about Chaos from a previous life, enough to get by and be able to use it as a human anyway. The older I got the more I forgot this life but most the, um, _teachings_ stayed, just in my subconscious of course. I could remember various things like how to wield a sword. When my parents finally discovered this, rich people who never had time for me, they allowed me to get my own swords crafted. I have two actually. A katana, and a wakizashi. The wakizashi is about half the size of my katana for two reasons. The first is that I can use it more discreetly and in small places. The second is I can dual wield the two quite efficiently.

"Now my parents were willing to pay anything for some reason. So what did I do? What any rational person would do. I went for the best. I visited not just any blacksmith. But an Echidnian blacksmith, requesting that he made the blade exactly how I wanted it and, as price wasn't on the problems list, he obliged. It took him a long time to make it the way I wanted it, as I got him to mixed in with the metal copious amounts of Chaos Crystals. Which is what causes the glittering in the moonlight. Because of the properties of the metal he managed to get so many of them in I almost got my parents telling me there was to be no more money spent, and they were billionaires. So you can imagine the ridiculous amounts of money involved. Anyway, about a year later, it was finally done, polished etc. Thanks to the metal, it will never have to be polished again as it will never dull nor break. And, well yeah, that's how I ended up with the best swords in the world." Slayde finished after a lengthy explanation that everyone stay quiet as requested through. Prosha and Noir were both sitting on the cart again. But since Rage was pulling it no one cared. It was his choice to have the extra weight.

"Pretty interesting. I take it you can store Energy within the sword?" Shadow followed through. Slayde nodded. Shadow put on his thinking face. "Then I may have to get one of my own..." Shadow trailed off. Slayde smirked.

"Oh no, I have a far better idea for you! It might be hard finding the correct Echidnian, but getting enough money together will be the hardest problem." Slayde replied. Shadow gave him a strange look but did not question him. Likely saving the conversation for when there were less prying ears.

"So about that pride thing?" Shadow questioned, though the two at the front turned their heads to a heated discussion that was going on in the back.

"Yes you do Sonic, I've already explained this." Terra was muttering to him angrily.

"Well I do not remember." Sonic replied in the same kind of hushed tone. Just about everyone was looking at the stationary pair now.

"I'm _trying_ to train you here Sonic, there's more to this relationship than s-" She finally noticed everyone was watching the pair of them as she had raised her voice towards the end. "Um, hey guys." She commented as casually as she could manage, a slight crack in her voice betraying her embarrassment.

"Wow, so even Sonic knows. That's not humiliating at all." Shadow mumbled in irritation. His eyes narrow at the arguing pair.

"Hey! I know some things!" Sonic exclaimed, Slayde smirked.

"Emphasis on 'some'." Slayde teased. Half the group laughed, the rest smirked, even Shadow smirked, pulling him out of the annoyed mood he was falling into. Sonic just stood there glaring at Slayde, considering punching him in the face for effect.

"I'll explain then." Terra stated, walking to the front of the group. "A lot of people have misconceptions of Chaos. Many think that it has two types, good and evil, light and dark. Complete bullshit." She started. Her swearing caused all the people who were not paying proper attention to pay attention, she never swore. "Dark and light Chaos are not rudimentarily evil nor good within themselves. Evil has been known to use light and good has been known to use dark. The misconceptions stem from the type of moves within the two base Elements. Darks moves are generally more destructive and lights moves are generally more preserving. Take for example Chaos Blast and Chaos Explosion. One kills and destroys everything whereas the other only eradicates that which is a threat, though at the cost of far more energy.

"Now very few people can use both light and dark Chaos and even fewer can use them both properly. You may think that Shadow is good at using Dark Chaos but from what I've seen his Chaos Blast is pitiful. An echo of what I could produce, or even Sonic, who until recently has been trying to resist his true calling. However if I tried to use some light moves that Shadow can use with ease, I would not be able to. I can not use light Chaos at all, so at least most of you can use both. Amazingly two of you can use them almost equally. Even in my entire village filled with Chaos users only two were able to. The elder and the chief. Now, watch me." She finished for a pause after speaking in a tone that made it so clear that you would have your head snapped off if you tried to interrupt. She closed her eyes as her fur was covered with a black pelt, and when she opened her eyes they had changed to a deep sea sapphire blue. "If I'm correct." She started in a voice that sounded much more powerful and authoritative than before. Shadow could tell in awe that she was indeed higher in power than him, the level 3 Yellow he had sensed before when she was not in her super form unsuppressed and at the higher end of level nine, maybe even the lower end of level ten. Being born and raised in a village so radiated Chaos Energy obviously had its benefits. Not to mention the constant, rigorous training from the age of five. Plus Shadow realised he had no idea how old she was. True she looked in her mid twenties. But people with strong Chaos always indirectly slowed their body clocks. So she could be a fair bit older. Late thirties even. "None of you except Slayde and Sonic know why my eyes are this colour, rather than red like the average Mobian super form." Sonic protested in the back ground, but no one paid him any heed. Even the little ones on the cart we listening intently, as if she had some kind of special story telling ability. "Well that's down to the fact that light and dark are split into seven different parts, and those parts are spilt into a further seven. They are split into the seven deadly sins, and as such your eyes go the colour that your working sin is. Generally the one you feel the strongest tie to, but most people settle for rage or anger as it's the easiest to control and use as an incentive. However, this is the part that not many outside my village know. Each sin has an 'opposite' that uses the same colour, but I use the term opposite lightly. Each side has its positives and negatives." Slayde was nodding in agreement. Shadow dared a whisper.

"How do you know this exactly?" He asked as quietly as he could, not wanting anyone to notice the exchange.

"I visited their village and stayed there for a while." He whispered back simply, and then added. "A human who could use Chaos better than the average Mobian was most fascinating to them." Shadow nodded, mostly to himself. That finally explained how Slayde knew a lot about Chaos that he did not.

"The sins, in order of power, are Pride, Lust, Envy, Greed, Sloth, Gluttony and Rage. However as Rage is the easiest to control, many people who use higher ones can be easily overpowered." Terra concluded. Rage could be heard in the background laughing about the fact that he was named after a sin, but Prosha quickly told him to shut it before Terra got irritated. "The

respective opposites may not be what you expect though. They are Respect, Love, Wanting, Passion, Thoughtfulness, Control and Calm." Terra explained quietly, yet everyone could hear her clearly over the silence. "As not all of them are mutually exclusive of each other, like greed

and passion can go hand in hand despite passion being more about admiration than acquisition, it is sometimes possible for a person to use both the Sin and its counterpart in conjunction. This, however, is even rarer than people being able to use both light and dark. Though as no one at the village could do it, they were but myths, I am not even sure if it is possible to be honest." She concluded, her feet hovering approximately a foot above the ground making her the tallest save Rage.

"I guess I should explain the Seven bits after that?" Terra asked bemused at their attentive faces that started nodded. She noticed that Slayde was enjoying the explanation despite the prior knowledge, giving her a bit more confidence that she was not making herself look like a fool. "They are then broken down into Seven elements, they are the base elements of all that is Chaos. The first four everyone knows, fire, water, earth and air. The other three are harder to learn and tricky to master, ice (or simply freezing in general), electricity and the mind itself. The mind is the most powerful element. It gives stem to all the natural born abilities like telekinesis, or mixed with another element, pyrokenesis. Foreseers use it, healers use it." Terra informed them, looking to Amy as she mentioned healers.

"Theoretically anyone could use every element. In practice however, most people can use four at most. It takes time, effort and a lot of energy to maintain skill over each element. Even though theoretically someone could learn all seven it has never been done. The highest recorded was five and no more. I personally can only use three; fire, earth and mind. But my mastery of the Earth Element is beyond anyone else I've ever met. Anyone who wishes to challenge this is welcome to try of course." She concluded devilishly, glancing at some fearful faces and others with a smirk. She shrugged. "It's good you all know now. You never know when not knowing something can put you at a disadvantage." She finally finished as she powered down and went back to stand with Sonic. The strange air vanished and suddenly everyone found that they could talk again without feeling awkward. Of course that resulted in too much noise in one spot.

"Glad you know that know." Slayde told Shadow as he moved a bit further from the group from the noise that was being generated. It was a small group but everyone had some good lungs on them. "I didn't really know how to explain it properly but Terra has a knack for it."

"Yes she does. Do you know how that is? The ability to tell that... 'Story' for lack of a better word was uncannily good." Shadow questioned, Slayde shrugged.

"I presume it is because her father was the chief of the village and her mother the seeress. So she's one of the most important people in the tribe simply from that. The title of chief is normally inherited... Though can be challenged, I guess she would be the only survivor from that family line so she would have both titles, despite her inability to actually 'see'." Slayde theorised. Shadow nodded in agreement. It was a sound theory.

"The sun has almost left this area." Shadow motioned towards the horizon where only half the sun was visible. Slayde looked over as well.

"That explanation was quite lengthy." Slayde agreed to Shadow's unspoken thought. The two looked at each other for a few seconds.

"Who are you?" Shadow asked out of the blue, taking Slayde by surprise. Slayde just looked at him blankly. "I feel like I know you. Like I should trust you, and that's not something I do easily. Yet it keeps happening with you. Also Rose. I don't understand why I expect your judgement to be as well thought out as my own." Slayde sighed before sitting. The sun had just about set now, a semi-circle on the horizon, Slayde looked back to the standing Shadow.

"I don't know Shadow. Every moment we spend, more of my human life wastes away. Soon enough I won't remember that, the past before it is far beyond my reach." Slayde told him. "You should probably get back to the rest. They might not admit it, but they look at you as the leader. If you need me, however, I'll be right here." Slayde finished before sighing and closing his eyes in a way that looked like he was deep in thought. Shadow decided against disturbing the Hedgehog despite the other questions he wanted to press to him. Slowly he walked back to camp. Considering what Slayde might have been to him. He recalled documents detailing his escape from the ARK from an average escape pod. One that had to be launched by another. When he hit the ground, he was apparently not apprehended until a couple of months after. Was it during that period he had met Slayde, before Slayde himself was trapped within a human skin? And how was Slayde trapped in a human skin? Did they kill him? His spirit attaching to something that he had already set up? Or did they force him within a human body to do tests and such? Before his trail of questions had stopped he found he was standing in the middle of a bunch of tents.

"We sort of have a problem with the tents... There's a load more of us now." Rage announced as soon as he was within a normal Mobians earshot. Shadow rolled his eyes and sighed.

"I'll let Prosha have my place. I don't really need a tent anyway." The usually quiet Ebony mentioned. If it wasn't for the fact that Amy was her only friend Shadow probably wouldn't have let her come.

"Well Terra and Sonic are obviously together." Shadow told them in a level voice, realising that Sonic and Terra were nowhere to be seen and that, on closer inspection, their tent was pitched further away from the other. He rolled his eyes, obviously Sonic was getting a bit more used to the heat. "Rage, you can share with Alpha I'm sure." Shadow didn't quite ask. Rage nodded anyway. "As for you." He started as he looked at the young Curruptian. He knew that himself and Slayde were probably the only two adults who would share with him, as even Rage and Alpha only seemed to put up with him because Prosha had told them to do so, though on second thought Rage did seem to like him, yet Alpha would probably only go in with Rage. It amused him how someone as small as that commanded the two of them. Shadow still had a major trust issue though, and didn't want to sleep nearby anyone he didn't trust. Limiting him greatly. "Here kid." He mentioned as he threw the tent, that had just appeared in his hands at a thought, lightly into his arms. "I'll stay in with Slayde. If you don't know how to set up it, ask Prosha to tell Rage to do it for you." Shadow told the young fox boy.

"Thanks." Noir told him as he walked off in the wrong direction. Shadow just rolled his eyes and went back towards Slayde, it only took him a few seconds and the camp was in view as the sun dropped beneath the world and shrouded the desert in darkness. Shadow looked at the stationary Slayde for a few seconds before sitting behind to him, back to him so he could see the camp, then he also closed his eyes.

"I presume you sorted out the tent problem?" Slayde asked, slight amusement in his voice. Shadow smirked.

"I did, seems we're sharing a tent." Shadow replied, Slayde didn't reply for a couple of seconds.

"I see." He replied simply. The two of them sat in silence for a long time, neither minding the dark, the cold nor the lack of any sound once the others had fallen to sleep. The moon shone above them, not quite full but bright enough for everything to be visible. It could have been minutes, or hours that they simply sat there. But something had to happen eventually.

"So what do you make of this King?" Shadow eventually asked, the two of them had small amounts of dew forming on their fur, morning had to be approaching.

"I would say that The Collector was as strong as Sonic. So I guess he could be only a little stronger then that or he could genuinely be stronger than us." Slayde replied, finally having opened his eyes. The two of them still didn't move, almost back to back they would both have had to turn almost 180 just to look at one another. Slayde simply watched the stars and the very faint orange haze he could see slightly to the left of him marking the suns nearing arrival. The arrival of a new day. Shadow chuckled slightly.

"So you think you're stronger than Sonic?" Shadow asked, bemused. Slayde also laughed.

"I _know_ I'm stronger than Sonic. It isn't a question." Slayde replied quite seriously underneath the laughter. Shadow had stopped and gone to a mere smirk, Slayde couldn't see this but he could tell from the atmosphere. "He has more natural gift for controlling Chaos than I do. But effort can beat natural skill if enough effort is put in. As you know I'm sure."

"Not personally, but I do know what you mean. Natural skill plus effort is a good combination for myself... Seems Amy has more natural skill that I presumed." Shadow hinted. Slayde didn't move, but in his eyes you could tell he was nodding internally.

"Yes, she does. She can heal people, being able to do that is a rare gift indeed! Beaten of course only by the ability to 'see'. An ability she seems to be showing the base qualities of." Slayde speculated. Now it was Shadow's turn to unmovingly nod within his own mind.

"It's concerning me, not just that, but how fast she's progressing within Chaos herself. She reminds me of what little I remember of my own progress. I presume that you may have progressed in a similar way, I get that feel." Shadow concluded. Slayde shrugged, the lack of movement round them allowing Shadow to be able to feel the movement in the air.

"Maybe. I can't quite remember. All I know is that I had a little brother who looked up to me, even if he was better than me at some things." Slayde told him, Shadow's ears perked up in interest. "Though I can't even remember his name, let alone his face." Slayde sighed miserably. The sun was almost upon them.

"That's interesting. I've often wondered what it would be like to have a brother, all I can remember is Maria." Shadow informed him. This interested Slayde in turn.

"Yes, well I can't remember any parents at all. So I presume we were orphans. Wonder what he's doing now, if he's even alive still, whether he became as strong as me... It must have been a long time." Slayde trailed off. The two of them were silent for almost half an hour until the first rays of sunlight peaked over the sandy hills. Morning was here. "I guess we should move back to the camp?" Slayde broke the silence with an unarguable point. Shadow sighed and stood slowly, his joints creaking slightly from the hours of sitting almost completely still.

"Are you going to be okay with no sleep?" Shadow asked out of what sounded like curiosity, but what may have also been concern, as he walked in front of the still stationary Slayde. Bumping into the King of the Curruptians with one of his best fighters not at 100% might not end well. Shadow held his hand out to help Slayde up. Slayde smiled slightly and took it.

"I've gone longer without sleep. I'm sure I'll be fine." Slayde replied as he shook off, most the dew that had formed already evaporating from the sun. "Good talking with you though. I'd been hell of bored without someone to keep me company." Slayde told him merrily as the two walked back to the camp. Ebony was sat on the cart, completely motionless (at least the two of them were breathing.) Everyone else seemed to still be sleeping.

"Erm Ebony?" Shadow muttered. The Mobian like robot didn't respond.

"I think she's in some kind of power save mode..." Slayde whispered to Shadow. Shadow shrugged and progressed to waking everyone else up. She must have started moving at some point because when he returned her and Slayde were in a full blown conversation about Chaos and how the Elements worked.

"So the sky is basically a whole load of the air Element. Plants are a mixture of water and earth. Though learning sub Elements can only be done after mastering the two or even three base Elements first. I would presume there would be some kind of ultimate move for someone who mastered all seven, but I seriously doubt anyone will be able to do that. Most people literally have blocks on certain Elements. I can't even tap into the mind portion. It's a side of Chaos that completely defies me now. And yet- Hey Shadow!" Slayde cut off as soon as he saw Shadow coming. "We're just talking about the Elemental Chaos, care to join?" Slayde questioned. Shadow looked back to the group who seemed to be being deliberately slow in getting out their tents. He shrugged.

"I suppose." He told the two of them as he stood beside Slayde.

"It seems some people can tap into the Elements without even meaning to. Like Sonic made up his own move 'Sonic wind' with his seemingly natural ability with the wind Element. I'm guessing Terra got her name from using the Earth Element before she could even talk." Slayde speculated. "But anyway. I'm wondering whether this King will know anything about this. Maybe his mastery of a couple of the Elements is what makes him so much better than the rest of them?"

"Could be." Shadow started. "Or he could simply be a slight bit better than this guy you beat. Considering if you hadn't had that stupid suit on you wouldn't have won right in the first few seconds, I'm sure I can defeat this king with no problems."

"Hey if it wasn't for this suit I would have struggled to keep up with you. It's unfair that you and Sonic got a boost from being in that room with the Emeralds for so long and I didn't. I don't know. Hopefully it's simply still to come." Slayde finished as he crossed his fingers. The scar on his hand was visible.

"What are those for?" Shadow questioned. Slayde looked at him confused until he turned his hand and looked.

"These are just to make conducting the Elements that I can use easier." Slayde told him casually, the rest of the group had arrived and they had to stop talking.

"Where we headed then?" Sonic asked, looking into the distance. Most of the group looked to Shadow except for Rage, who was loading the cart; Slayde, who already knew where they were going; and Terra, who had already guessed where they were going.

"We're heading to their King." Shadow announced, there were some faces pulled whether they be irritation, laziness or fear from Noir. "We need to check to see if there are any Emeralds there." Shadow informed them all. "So we will be going."

"But how do we know what direction to take?" Ebony questioned, a couple of the group looked like they agreed. Shadow sighed.

"Well me and Slayde both think that it's in same direction, and there's no such thing as coincidence so it will be in that direction. Not to mention we know the general direction that the two with the carts were travelling in. So we can base it off that as well. Judging by the fact that they go in similar directions... Well you do the math." Shadow finished. He pulled out his map and jotted a few things down on it before he started walking, everyone else following in suit. Sonic still looked hot, but not quite as badly as he did before. It was unusual how the blue blur could withstand his own body temperature being high, and how he could withstand the cold of space and yet he couldn't take a little heat.

"Do we have to go there?" Noir spoke up. A couple of them looked at him in sympathy.

"We do indeed." Shadow confirmed in a level voice. He was back to the calm collected old Shadow. Seemingly he only was going to make a tiny crack his shell round certain people. "I want us ready to leave in five. Faster if possible."

A couple minutes later everything was ready, the supplies gathered, the fire doused. Without further to do the group set off in almost complete silence, only speaking when they had to. It seemed they had a long walk ahead of them and none wanted to expend more energy than necessary. The King of the Curruptians seemed like too much of a threat to anyone weaker than Sonic, and that atmosphere flowed into the rest of them as well. The sun had gotten well past mid day by the time someone spoke.

"I think I see something." Slayde uttered, causing most of the group to jump. Shadow looked in the same direction as him, squinting.

"You're right. It looks like some kind of building. A tower maybe." Shadow commented, looking carefully. "We must be getting close." He finished. "How are we doing for supplies incidentally Rage?" Shadow asked the Hedgehog as he pulled the cart along with the two kids in.

"We're not doing too bad for supplies, but if you think we'll be going for longer than a week or so we might have to consider finding somewhere to stock up." Rage replied readily. He had obviously been thinking about it prior to Shadow's asking. Shadow looked like he was deep in thought as they walked, as such no one bothered the dark Hedgehog.

"What sort of place do you think the Curruptians will be in?" Slayde questioned Shadow, Shadow merely shrugged.

"It could be nothing but open desert, it could be a thriving city. I guess we'll find out when we get there." Shadow replied, Noir moved forwards.

"It's a city all right." He started, looking quite frightened by the fact that they were within range of the massive place. "Ruined pillars of earth. Made by the king himself as rumour tells us, it's based on an ancient city that was made long ago, as is our system, our culture. If we weren't born, or created with an in born sense to obey, I doubt many would take it, but as it is. I was the exception, a rarity and a freak." It was the most anyone had heard him speak, and everyone was looking at him. "I would say try and sneak in, but it's likely they know you're coming."

"I made sure that none would be able to go back and tell them." Slayde commented casually as they continued walking. Noir stayed silent.

"One got away from me though. Dammit." Shadow suddenly announced. Everyone looked at him in surprise. "I was pretty badly injured…" He told them.

"Well then we can assume that they know we're on our way." Slayde commented casually. "So is there any point in actually trying to sneak in? We know that their king wants to fight Shadow, and if Shadow wins then he'll gain kingship, or at least I think that's how their system works, it's based on strength after all."

"_If_ Shadow wins?" Shadow questioned with a look that could paralyse a lesser Mobian.

"You know what I mean." Slayde retorted coolly. "So we just go to the door and issue a challenge to the king. I doubt he'd be able to refuse." Slayde commented as he shrugged.

"I guess that seems like a simple plan, but at the same time, it seems too simple." Shadow replied before turning to Noir. "What do you think?"

"Slayde's right, but you shouldn't do it. The King's so strong, too strong." Noir told him quietly, Shadow just smirked.

"Well now I really want to fight him." Shadow stated proudly. Amy rolled her eyes at him and he caught it. "What Rose?"

"Typical you, someone gives you a warning and you just take it as a challenge." Amy told him, Shadow just shrugged. Slayde, however, laughed.

"I'm just the same, I knew you were already itching to fight him, so my plan was made with that in mind." Slayde told him, Shadow couldn't help but smirk to him.

"Thanks." Shadow commented. Amy sighed, but beyond that everyone else just carried on walking. More buildings were coming into view and they would be at the city in mere minutes.

"Okay, so I've been thinking." Slayde started, but Sonic quickly interrupted.

"Be careful not to hurt yourself." He told him in mock concern, no one paid him any attention due to how close they were to the city however. No one was in the mood.

"If I go first, declare Shadow's challenge and see how they react we'll know if we're going to have to fight to get to the king or not. Because Shadow best not fight until we make it there." Slayde suggested. Shadow nodded mutely, he was too busy thinking up battle strategies to give a proper reply. Slayde started walking faster than the others, he clicked his fingers and out of nowhere a heavy looking hood and cloak appeared which he quickly adorned, hood down. By the time he had made it to the city, he was out of earshot of all the normal Mobians of the group. Slayde could hear whispering about him, mumbles about 'The Collector' so he spoke in a loud voice.

"I have brought Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Life Form, to challenge his Majesty. Does anyone wish to dispute this with me?" Slayde announced, the entrance to the city remained quiet. It was just how Slayde had pictured it, like what a medieval city would have looked. Wooden and sandstone houses, the place looked like it was made from the desert itself. "You there." He called at one of the soldiers standing guard that looked particularly fast. The soldier looked at his comrades on either side of him to see them all looking at him. "You plan on keeping me waiting?" Slayde questioned in a cold tone. The guard, a dirty blue Hedgehog, ran up to Slayde quickly before kneeling in front of him. Slayde was not disappointed with his speed.

"Yes sir?" The guard asked calmly. Slayde took in a deep breath and exhaled.

"I need you to run ahead and inform the king, along with all the guards along the way. Although I doubt they'd disturb us walking, I would rather them be forewarned." Slayde told him, the soldier quickly stood up and bowed.

"I'll get right on it Sir." He replied as he zoomed off, a slow speed to what most of their group could have achieved but, he ran fast enough.

"Hey Slayde, what's happening?" Amy called as they all walked underneath the gateway. All of them were visually on guard for any form of attack, but they relaxed as soon as they saw Slayde standing there without a guard up.

"We're going straight towards the Colosseum." Slayde replied before looking at another one of the soldiers, a dirty red Echidna. "Hey you, get over here." Slayde announced to him.

"Yes Sir?" The soldier asked. Slayde rolled his eyes as he put his hood up.

"Guide us to the Colosseum." Slayde ordered before sinking into the back of the group, making himself as unnoticeable as possible. The soldier merely started walking as the rest of the group followed. Shadow lagged behind a bit so that Slayde would catch up with him, the two were at the back of the group.

"That was a rather interesting conversation Slayde." Shadow told him, Slayde shrugged which was hard to see through his cloak. "And why the disguise."

"You've already guessed why I talked to them like that Shadow, and I'm wearing this because I do not want the king to see me. The pull of this... Corruption, is strange. I do not know if I'd be able to resist challenging him for his place myself. It'd be better for you to do it." Slayde told him. Shadow nodded as he went back to his thoughts, slowly making his way back to the front of the group as they walked. They were walking for what must have been about an hour before the soldier finally spoke.

"So you're challenging our king." He asked Shadow casually, Shadow looked at him and analysed him for a second.

"Yes, I am. You remind me of someone I knew once." Shadow replied, the Echidna looked shocked.

"I do? I'm new here, maybe you knew me before I died and changed?" The Echidna asked, puzzled.

"You died?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, anyone who dies comes here, it does not matter where or if their body survives. We simply get reborn as this race. If one of our own dies, they come back too. Though they get reborn as children, so they're always weak again, though stronger ones are always born with stronger natural abilities." The Echidna told him. "I'm actually quite strong though. I'm climbing ranks pretty fast, not many people get guard duty, it's the least boring thing to do when there are no plans of attacking anyone."

"Thanks for clearing that up for me." Shadow stated, he glanced to Sonic, but Sonic seemed far too busy to notice the conversation. "Do you remember anything from before you died?" Shadow questioned.

"Just one thing. A blue Hedgehog leaning over me on a battlefield. Apparently everyone remembers their last second, but it's why I made friends with that guy your... Um, the other Hedgehog sent away." The Echidna told him, Shadow nodded.

"Do not repeat this to anyone else in this group." Shadow told him in a voice that was not to be messed with. The Echidna shrugged.

"Sure thing. It's common knowledge to us anyway." The Echidna told him as they stopped walking. "And we're here." He motioned the ridiculously tall, circular building in front of him that spanned further than the eye could see either way. "This is the challengers entrance, good luck." He told him. "You can take one of your friends in with you, but the rest have to stay with me and go to the observers platform." The Echidna told him. Shadow glanced at Slayde for a split second and they exchanged looks before anyone had even noticed them looking at one another before Shadow stopped his eyes on Amy.

"Come on then Rose." Shadow motioned as he walked through the small archway. Amy followed immediately behind, as soon as they were out of earshot of the others she spoke.

"Why did you pick me and not someone else who might have been able to help you work out a plan?" She asked him sincerely. Shadow looked to her as they walked.

"I'd rather be with you." He told her simply before quickly adding on. "I've already thought up enough battle strategies." Amy looked at him for a few second before frowning.

"You're not taking this seriously enough Shadow." She told him icily. Shadow just laughed.

"I'm taking it seriously enough Rose, do not worry." Shadow replied as the made it to a door which Shadow immediately opened and held open for Amy before entering himself.

It was a bit of a boring room with a lot of weapons and other various tools. Seemed like a lot of their training probably went on in this 'Coliseum' of theirs.

"Wonder if the others are in the stands yet?" Amy asked no one in particular. Suddenly a large door was opening, allowing a lot of the light of day to shine in. The roar of a crowd could be heard. Shadow quickly walked into the light to find himself in such a big stadium he could not even compare it to anything he's seen before. Eight Mobians in strange robes were round the edges, looking as if they were already working on the circle. There was a solitary figure standing right in the middle, a crown adorning his head, strange 'kingly' robes on his shoulders, beyond that he was unclothed. A grey, almost black wolf. Likely coloured as such merely from the corruption.

"Welcome." He spoke, yet his voice was mysteriously projected to everyone in the Coliseum as the resulting up cry was astounding. Shadow's eyes scanned the crowds before spotting familiar blue along with many other known colours. He paused to wonder where the cart was, but realised he had more pressing matters on his hands.

"Amy, they're all up there, go and join them." He quickly told her as he pointed. Amy ran and jumped at full speed, causing the audience to fall silent for a second before cheering at her. Even from the extreme distance Shadow could see her blushing.

"I challenge you." The king started, before changing his mannerism entirely to one of someone much more calculating. "The Royals against the ultimate life form in a battle to the death. Do you accept?" The king asked.

"I do." Shadow replied immediately.

"'_Dammit Shadow.'_" could be heard from Terra as the blue circle appeared. Shadow looked at her in surprise. "_Sorry, just relaying because Slayde asked me to. He said 'that you should not have accepted because the royals means more than just him and he's looking for insurance.'"_ Shadow nodded, he knew this already. He was after a challenge.

"Then let us begin." The king announced before jumping at Shadow at breakneck speeds, already having powered into super form, his fur now completely black, eyes red. Shadow had to quickly unleash his as he blocked the Kings punch, causing the sandstone ground to crack underneath him. Shadow quickly unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks which were, to his utmost surprised, all blocked and parried. The king managed to land a kick right in Shadow's stomach causing him to fly backwards slightly. The King went on the offensive, throwing so many punches and kicks Shadow did not manage to block all of them. By the time he had backed off, Shadow was panting, scuffs all over his arms and legs. "Is this really all you have? How disappointing." The King taunted, Shadow was not disheartened however and quickly launched a Chaos Spear at him before managing to connect a kick to his head. The King flinched violently but managed to grab Shadow and throw him into the ground, hard. Shadow laid in a small imprint of himself for a couple of seconds before he got up, shaking his head and jumping out of it.

"This is not good." Slayde muttered to the others. "Shadow is not quite as strong as he is. In fact he's probably three levels beneath him." The group looked at him in concern. The two of them were inside the ring. There was nothing they could do about it now. Unless...

Shadow jumped at the King again, trying to kick him, the King merely dodged and caught him round the neck. Shadow started trying to pull his arms away unsuccessfully, the beating they had took from defending himself having weakened them. Suddenly a cloaked figure appeared between them, blasting the King away in gigantic gush of wind. Shadow fell to the ground as the King spun out of control. Slayde pulled down his hood to show himself in super form.

"Dammit Shadow, that took most my energy." He told him, Shadow was breathing heavily, he did not need to breath, but the pressure that had been put on his windpipe was so much that his neck was about to crack.

"And who are you?" The king asked as casually as he could, anger still evident in his voice despite. "Oh I see. You're my collector, one of the Royals. Well you're bound to fight on my side now anyway." The King informed him, clicking his fingers another Curruptian joined the ring. "Meet The Strategist." It was a light brown Wolf, and although the fur was tainted slightly it was still very light, like the corruption had not touched the wolf that much. The Wolf wore some heavy black/brown robes, only the Strategist's head and oddly long brown hair was visible. The Wolf had one grey eye and one brown eye.

"Rage! Get your ass down here!" Slayde suddenly shouted. Rage looked surprised but suddenly teleported in right next to Slayde. "You know that if you'd have just come instead of me then you might have been able to help Shadow beat him without me having to come in." The King however looked indignant.

"How on Mobius is he in here?!" Finally losing it slightly before settling himself back down in a few moments.

"You said you challenged The Ultimate Life Form, you never specified which one." Slayde stated simply. "Did you think The Doctor made him just to be average? He made him to be the new Ultimate Life Form."

"I see, well it's still three against two, so-" Slayde cut the king off.

"On that topic, as one on the side of the challenge issuers I hereby allow one extra fighter to fight on the side of the ultimate lifeforms to be picked by them and call this a one verses one tournament style three verses three challenge." Slayde announced quickly. "And I declare Shadow as my opponent." Slayde mentioned as he smirked. Suddenly the perfect circle was cut into three with Slayde and Shadow in one, Rage and The Strategist in the other, and The King standing by himself in the last, scowling.

"How did you do that?" He muttered angrily, unable to get past the wall separating them to try and kill him.

"There's probably a lot of things that you do not know about Chaos that she does." Slayde told him as he pointed at Terra. Shadow looked to see where he was pointing to, yet could barely move.

"I can absorb my opponents energy if I wish." The King suddenly told him. "A few more seconds and you would just have been an empty shell." He taunted Shadow, Slayde nodded as if it made sense now. Someone who could do that would be able to progress easier than most.

"I choose Terra." Shadow announced in a quiet voice. The crowd were silent, most of them had no idea about what was happening. Terra however stood up, punching her fist into her other hand.

"Fuck yeah." She announced as Sonic tried to grab her to stop her going. "Hey, I'm still stronger than you, do not make me beat you up first. I need some action." Sonic quickly let go of her as she jumped down and landed in the third of the circle that the King was in.

"Great, well this is going to boring." The King muttered.

"Think what you will sweety, but I'm looking forward to this fight." Terra told him as she crunched some of her knuckles. The King jumped at her, but she had already powered up into her dark super form and blocked his initial attack with ease. He set his feet back on the ground a couple of meters away.

"Maybe this will be more fun than I thought." The King commented before Terra jumped at him, laying into him with a flurry of kicks and punches that he could not defend properly, the last kick caught the side of his face and knocked him over. He caught himself before he hit the ground and spun round, stopping any further attacks from coming, but Terra was not attacking, she was just watching him with a smirk. The King pulled the robes off his shoulders and leapt at her once more, punches even faster and harder now without that dragging him down. Terra blocked them all before they started to become too much, she quickly did a back flip to get out of range, but as she landed he managed to get a kick on her, with no resistance in the air she went flying until she forced herself to stop, quickly flying up into the air.

"_You do realise that you have no chance against me right?_" Terra asked him, straight into his mind. Despite his usually calm demeanour he was genuinely shook by this sudden thing. Terra threw a chunk of the floor at him without so much as looking at it. It stopped in it's tracks as it was about to hit him however.

"Did you not hear the stories? I built this city myself." He taunted as several pieces of earth went flying towards Terra, she stopped them all. "Okay, I'm impressed." He told her as all of it dropped to the ground, crumbling. The earth and sand swirled round Terra, blotting her out of vision before she suddenly came out shooting at the king with her right arm covered in a strong piece of rock, she punched him in the side of the head, but unfortunately he had managed to slow it down enough that it only grazed him. She quickly released the earth, allowing her to move fast enough to punch him in the gut with her left hand. He coughed before trying to seize Terra's neck with his hands. He succeeded. Quickly he pulled her into a headlock and place one of his hands on her throat, Terra quickly pulled, but when it was obvious she was not going to get out easily she quickly placed one of her hands on his forehead.

"_You want a battle of natural talents then bring it on._" Terra told him into his mind again before he suddenly found that he could not quiet remember what he was doing, or why he was doing it. He looked down to the women in his arm. Knowing that he must be doing what he was doing for a reason, and he trusted himself. Yet suddenly he found himself seeing things that he had no recollection of, it took him a second to realise it was his life from before he had been reborn, Terra felt his grip loosen as he hand fell away from her throat. In a matter of seconds she had shown him every disturbing and scary thing that not only he had ever seen, but that everyone she had ever touched minds with had ever seen. Then when she hit Shadow's memories she felt his pain, and then Sonic's. Then she hit Slayde's. In a second she saw all three of his lives played out like a movie. The King let her go, finally succumbing to all that she had shown him, yet she knew that would not be enough to deter someone like his for long, she needed more. Suddenly she found herself tapping into her mothers DNA. She saw brutal murders conducted by a woman she had once known and would know again. She saw Shadow finally finding out all of his Origins, she saw the Chaos Lords, and their masters, and then their master. She saw a Hedgehog that looked like Shadow, only he was evil and then she saw the one given the power over time and space. Then she saw angels and demons, and then. She collapsed, not being able to take anymore. The King just stood there, blinking before collapsing himself, yet his body lay still, his mind killing itself over everything it had just seen. She rose again, holding her head. All that she had just seen had already faded from her mind. Yet she looked to Shadow and Slayde knowingly, knowing something more than they did. The two of them had not moved during the entire battle, Slayde was kneeling with Shadow's head resting on his legs, Terra turned to see how Rage was doing.

* * *

Rage watched Terra jump into the part of the arena next to him before he looked back to his opponent, not even sure if he could win. The Strategist smiled at him, but not in the nice way. In the 'I'm going to kill you now' way. Rage smirked back. The Wolf did not move however, and simply spent time watching his every move, his every breath. Rage was content to just stand there all day, however, as he never was fond of fighting and so that was all they did. For ages he just stood there, crossing his arms after a few minutes while the Strategist watched him and analysed him.

"Are you going to do anything, or are you just going to stand there?" Rage asked, glancing over to see how Terra was doing. The King was just throwing rocks at her with his mind, no biggy. Rage sweat dropped, glad he was not against him. He turned back. The Strategist still had not moved.

"I could say the same to you." Was the reply. "I never attack first." The Wolf informed him.

"I see." He mumbled. Not really sure where this was going. "You might be waiting a while then." Rage told the Wolf. They just stood still and watched each other. He shrugged and sat down, glancing back to Terra to see her grazing the King with a fist made of earth. He could almost feel his ears flattening at the sheer power the two of them were putting out. He turned back to the Strategist. To see no one there.

"Are you seriously not going to go first?" A voice came from behind as the Wolf asked him, he did not even flinch and just shrugged.

"I do not like fighting." Rage told the Wolf. "I love watching it, but I do not really like doing fighting myself."

"How about this then. We'll play rock paper scissors, and if I win you attack me first. But if you win I forfeit." The Wolf told him, he laughed.

"Yeah, sure." He finally agreed after he finished. The Strategist smirked, the Wolf had never lost in rock paper scissors.

"Okay then, we'll." Suddenly the Kings robe-cape type thing bumped into Rage, the Wolf took note of it. "We'll put our hands under that and then move it away on the count of three." Rage just nodded as he picked it up in his left and put his right underneath. The Wolf did the same thing. _Okay, so he's got a soft personality, so he'll probably go with paper. _The Wolf started to shift the right hand to scissors then stopped. _No, he'll expect me to think that. He'll go rock, but that would make me go paper so he'll go scissors. So if I go rock and he does we'll have another go, if he goes scissors however... _The Wolf looked up to him. _He thinks he is so smart, but I've got him._ The Wolf balled the hand under the cloak into a fist just as he said three. And there was his hand in paper, and the Wolf's in rock. The Strategist froze for a second. "You did not even move your hand from how it was when you were leaning on it on the ground did you?" Rage was asked in frustration.

"Nah, could not be bothered." He told the Wolf calmly as he looked over to Terra who had just looked over to him. The frustration was almost explosive on the wolf's face.

"_Did you two just do what I think you did?_" Terra asked him directly into his mind. Rage turned and smirked at her.

"I forfeit." The Wolf announced to the crowd in irritation. Rage looked back to grin, but the Wolf was no where in sight, he looked to his left to see that the Wolf had been teleported outside the ring with a foul look and laughed. The wall dividing Terra and Rage vanished.

"Well then Shadow, looks like you're going to have to kill me." Slayde commented casually. Shadow sat up, finally having enough energy to start moving round again.

"Or you could just forfeit?" Shadow laughed quietly. Slayde shrugged, could not hurt to try.

"I forfeit!" He shouted. There was noise from the crowd, but besides that nothing happened. "Thought as much."

"Yet it was so easy for Rage to win his." Shadow commented, finally about to stand again.

"Yes, that's a first for me, I must say." Terra commented from the other side of one of the walls. Rage walked up to the wall also, neither of them could get in.

"So what you going to do?" He asked. "We're all trapped in here until you two decide what you're doing."

"Do you think a knock out will work?" Slayde asked, hopefully.

"It was a fight to the _death_." Terra commented. "I do not quite understand how Rage got away with what he did. Rock paper scissors obviously is some kind of ancient decider."

"Well we could do that?" Slayde commented. "But I guess it would not really work if I won." He countered himself. "Well all you have to do is stop my heart." Slayde commented casually. Shadow rolled his eyes at him.

"Because it's that simple." Shadow replied. "Surely if neither side wishes to fight this damn thing should just make itself disappear?"

"Not that simple Shadow." Terra commented. "It's binding, you know that." Shadow sighed.

"Yes I know, does not mean I have to be happy about it." Shadow commented before looking behind him to see Slayde running round in circles behind him. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Trying to use up the rest of my energy. I used most of it on that guy pushing him away." Slayde replied, Shadow just watched him for a few seconds, as did the other two.

"And then what?" Shadow asked. Slayde shrugged, he was moving too fast to see it properly, but thankfully Shadow was recovering. "I would have thought that you would have started restoring it by now."

"I've been trying to block it because I knew it would come to something like this as soon as I made it into the ring." Slayde replied before he started teleporting with Chaos Control so erratically it was impossible to see him, after a half a minute of it he collapsed to the ground next to Shadow. "There we go. Utterly exhausted." Slayde told him. Shadow looked down at him and sat down next to him.

"I guess we could try and arm wrestle?" Shadow questioned in a voice which had a tone like he was asking himself if he really just said that. Slayde sat up as fast as he could, which was pretty slow for him.

"Yeah sure, can not hurt to try." Slayde replied before he shuffle towards Shadow. They took one another hands. "Three, two and one." Slayde counted down. He knew he'd have to try and use his full strength else it would not have a hope of working. The two just sat there, arm's quivering slightly from the sheer effort of keeping each other right in the middle, but Shadow was hurt, and his arm shifted slightly. Slayde was winning by a tiny margin. Yet Shadow managed to slowly push it back to the middle again, and it kept going. Obviously Slayde had used up so much energy he just could not continue with the effort. Slowly his hand got closer to the ground, closer and closer until finally he was a mere inch away. But he was not giving up, he knew he could not. Putting one last effort into it he managed to push Shadow's arm back up again by a full quarter of the distance before his arm just suddenly gave way, causing a crack and a hand shaped mark in the ground.

"Looks like you win Shadow." Slayde commented casually. The blue of the circle started to dissipate. Yet for the most part the crowd was angry. Only one of the battles was interesting and it ended in a way they did not understand. They had jumped onto the field of sand and stone and were making their way towards the participants. Suddenly a whirlwind surrounded the ground, causing the crowd to stop in their tracks. Lightning could be seen rotating within it and all of the crowd stopped save a couple of Curruptians that ran in anyway, Terra was too busy staring at the whirlwind which was not hurting them at all. She had no idea who had conjured it. Yet its energy signature seemed familiar.

"_Is that you Noir?_" Terra asked him directly into his head, the whirlwind flickered a second from the surprise of having someone speaking in his head. "_That's all the answer I needed, thanks a lot. You can stop now._" She quickly walked over to Rage while the whirlwind slowly dispersed. "Lend me some of your energy Rage?" Terra asked. Rage just put his hand on hers and she instantly felt the flow of energy into her. She almost jumped back in shock at the ease in which he did it. Not to mention how much he gave her in that short time. "Erm thanks." Terra commented.

"No problem." He replied, amused at her reaction.

"You might have been able to beat that Wolf you know." Terra commented. Rage shrugged. "Having this light energy in me is weird though. It feels so wrong."

"Oops, sorry. I tried to give you only dark energy." Rage apologised, Terra shook her head.

"It's fine, my body will just naturally convert it anyway." Terra reassured. "Go give them a bit too if you've got enough." She told him.

"Still got plenty." Rage reassured back. Terra once again looked at him in surprise.

"You're much stronger than you act." She announced. Rage simply shrugged as he walked over to the other two. She looked to the crowds who had just come back in view, the couple that had run inside the whirlwind were sitting down, head spinning from having ran in circles. "Well then my people." Terra spoke in a magnified voice like the former King. "Seems you're all mine now. Bring me the Chaos Emerald, or you shall regret it." She told them all. They all started scrambling back, some of them leaving through the Colosseum exits. The Wolf suddenly appeared in front of Terra.

"There you go." The Wolf told her as the Emerald was passed into her hand. "Not many actually knew where it was hidden."

"Erm thanks. I did not catch you name. Your real one I mean." Terra asked as she examined the Emerald, it was deep sea blue. The Wolf just looked at her blankly for a second.

"Erm, it's Natani." The Wolf told her. "It was my name before I became one of these. Though I never died, I was one of the ones who simply spent too long out of cover. As such it does not have as strong a hold on me, if any. I was just strong enough to join them as I had no where else to go."

"I'm leaving you in charge of the Curruptians, do what you see fit with them." Terra informed the Wolf as she walked towards the rest of her group, Shadow Slayde and Rage had all already gone. Within moments they were all together again, there was barely anyone left in the stadium.

"So now we have three. You sure this is the only one they have?" Alpha asked, talking to the main group for the first time in a while.

"I'm sure, there's none more in the city." Shadow told them all. He pulled out the green Emerald, and Slayde pulled out his yellow one. "With the three of them one of you three should be able to teleport us out the city." Shadow told them as he looked at Sonic, Rage and Terra. Terra held up the deep sea blue one, immediately shouting out the magic words.

"_Chaos!" _She started, but just as she did someone grabbed Rage on the shoulder.

"I'm not letting you go that easily." Muttered the voice in his ear.

"_Control!" _Finished Terra, not noticing the small exchange that had just gone on. They were all outside the city, the group stood there for a second before the one's that did not hear what their new addition said to Rage suddenly jumped. This included Terra.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Amy was the first to shout. The wolf, Natani, shrugged.

"I'm coming with you." Natani told them simply. Half the group started to protest.

"You know I'm way to tired for us to argue this out right now. If everyone wants to just shut up and we can put it down to a vote." Shadow came out with, causing the whole group to be silent immediately.

"So you guys do not let the strongest be the leader, huh?" Natani commented casually.

"Comments like that probably will not help you." Rage muttered to the Wolf. "I vote the wolf stays." He announced, shrugging.

"I swear as time goes on you take life less and less seriously." Slayde commented to Rage. "I agree with Rage, stay."

"I'd rather not have someone like 'it' round. No offense Noir, you're different." Alpha stated quite indignantly.

"I'll try not to take offense, but I vote Natani stays..." Noir mentioned. "If I get a vote that is."

"Yeah you do, but Prosha does not." Rage commented. Prosha glared at him but did not argue for once, though only because before she had a chance Shadow cut across.

"The kid gets a vote too." He stated tiredly. Prosha stuck her tongue out at Rage.

"I vote stay." She told the group while nodding.

"That's four to stay and one to leave." Slayde commented.

"I feel awkward enough with one round. So I vote no." Amy replied, quite timid compared to her usual self. She obviously did not like upsetting anyone.

"I vote with Amy." Ebony voted quietly, not everyone heard her but the two that were adding the totals up did so it did not matter.

"I'd rather not have a second one round. Sorry." Sonic commented, looking a bit sad with himself.

"After becoming their King it's probably a bit hypocritical to say this, but I'd rather Natani not come." Terra announced, more looking like she was agreeing with Sonic than anything else.

"Well then, looks like you've got a bit of a decider on your hands Shadow." Slayde commented. "You can either damn the poor Wolf to the city where Natani does not really belong, again, or you can cause a stalemate." Most of them looked at him oddly, except Terra, Shadow and Rage.

"I heard that conversation too. I vote that the Wolf is allowed to stay. But where does that leave us?" Shadow commented lightly. The sun was starting to get dark and they needed to set up camp.

"I know! We can do rock paper scissors again." Rage commented. No one threw up any objections.

"Yeah, go ahead then. Slayde, get the tent out." Shadow replied as he walked off to go set up his tent. Slayde suddenly made the cart appear out of thin air.

"Okay, traditional this time." Rage held his hand up ready.

"You're not getting me with the same trick twice." Natani commented.

"I used a trick?" Rage asked, Natani just ignored him.

"One." Natani started.

"Two." Rage continued.

"Three!" They both yelled at the same time. Rage had his hand on paper and Natani's hand was on rock.

"You have to be kidding me." Natani commented in anger. Losing once was annoying, twice was just infuriating. The Wolf started to walk off.

"Hey, where are you going?" Rage asked. Natani turned back round.

"I lost, I'm going back to the city?" The Wolf asked in a flimsy statement.

"I won, so I get to decide that you stay." Rage commented smugly, a proud look on his face. Slayde burst out laughing.

"You crafty bastard, there was no way you could lose!" He managed to say in between breaths. Most of the group looked annoyed, but there was not much that they could do about it.

"We'll share a tent? Alpha can go in with Noir seeing as how he does not mind him anymore." Rage commented. Natani blushed slightly.

"Yeah, that should not be a problem." Natani told him.

"Great, I'll go get everyone's tents." He told them.

Within half an hour everyone's tents were up and ready, even Shadow and Slayde had gone inside theirs. Rage got in first, Natani followed after a few moments. Rage had already stripped to just his boxers as he laid there, daydreaming about something. Natani just laid down fully dressed and turned away from him. Rage shrugged and followed suit. It did not take them long to fall to sleep. Within minutes everyone was asleep, except Alpha whom had appointed himself as watchman without asking anyone. He'd wake up Rage in about four hours, make him go on guard duty just out of spite.

Four hours later Alpha stretched and walked over to Rage's tent, slowly undoing the zip so he would not wake up. He froze at what he saw, Rage had his arm over Natani, and their mouths were extremely close. He quickly did the zip back up.

"I never realised Rage swung that way... And I shared a tent with him." Alpha commented as he shuddered. Suddenly there was a voice behind him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Natani asked in a harsh whisper.

"I do not know, what am I doing?" Rage asked, confused, having just been spun round on the spot.

"Never mind, do not come near me again." Natani told him before they went silent. Alpha took his opportunity and opened the zip again to find a confused looking Rage and an angry Natani at opposite ends of the tent.

"Um, your turn for watch Rage." Alpha told him awkwardly before quickly rushing to his tent. Rage sighed but got out the tent without protest, zipping it up behind him without a word.

Four more hours later, the sun looked as if it was just about to get on the horizon. Rage quickly headed back to the tent to get his clothes on before anyone else got up. Yet as he opened the zip he felt as if something was wrong. He was not disappointed, there was Natani laying on her back. She had boobs all of a sudden.

"Erm Natani?" Rage whispered so as not to wake up anyone else. She opened her eyes slowly.

"What is it?" She asked, looking down her eyes widened. "The bandages! Do not you dare tell anyone about this."

"Okay, but why?" Rage asked the obvious question. Yet rustling was heard from not too far away.

"Sometime when we're alone. I'll tell you, now shh." Natani told him quickly.

Rage simply nodded before grabbing his clothes and putting them on outside. This was something entirely new to him.


	13. 12 Out the Desert and into the Crossfire

_Out of the Desert and Into the Crossfire_

The group were walking slowly, yesterday had made most the group hesitant. Unfortunately with the fact that there were still powerful people out there, unknown people whom had trained their whole lives just to become strong, none of the group knew for sure just how strong. There were the possibilities of other planets too, Black Doom had proven that. Shadow had only been 'alive' for round twenty years, the rest spent in a cryogenic freezing chamber. Naturally, he wasn't the strongest in the world however, he probably would be the strongest one day. The group walked in silence, no one in the mood to talk. Some of them simply disgruntled still with how Rage had gotten passed the voting, despite it already being three days ago. The others were unable to stop thinking about how strong the Curruptian king was. With the group starting to run low on supplies, they had started to cut down. Rage hadn't eaten during the three days, passing his food off to the younger ones. Shadow hadn't bothered putting himself in the rations plan because he felt no need for himself to eat anyway, even if Rose objected. The problem was Natani, the wolf was odd to Shadow. Although he had the full outward appearance of a male, he also let of the slight sent of female. Though it was hidden mostly, obscured by something, likely some form of Chaos power. Also the tone of voice was fairly gender neutral, the kind that if you spoke to down a phone you would be unsure as to whether you were talking with a man or a woman. Shadow therefore had to speculate. Was the Wolf a he or a she? Physically at least, emotionally it was obvious which _he_ would rather be referred to. But when it came to it should Shadow inform everyone that physically he was likely she? Or should he respect the Wolf's wishes? For now he would stay quiet, and try to find out why, when it had happened and what had caused it. Whatever was going on half the group had refused to let him add Natani into the food rations, and as such he was stuck. Though the Wolf had told Shadow that he would be able to find his own food, Shadow wondered just how much there was to eat here, even most the reptiles were gone. Either way, it seemed that Slayde had started sharing his rations with Natani. Though despite that, Shadow would rather Slayde not have to starve, he had caught the Hedgehog giving all of his rations away yesterday the both of them claimed that he hadn't done that before yet both of them had shown signs of lying. When Shadow pulled Slayde aside to ask him about it Slayde had told him: 'They are my rations and when I want them for myself I shall eat them. Otherwise I shall do with them anything I want.' The two hadn't spoken since that, despite it being a pathetic thing to be annoyed with one another about. Shadow found himself involuntarily worrying about whether the Hedgehog was eating enough. Just like he was with Amy, it was annoying him that the both of his were having this effect on him. He didn't really know how he should proceed. And that too worried him.

"Aren't those clouds?" Slayde suddenly mentioned in a quiet voice taking everyone by surprise. Shadow looked into the distance, and sure enough. There was clouds, clouds that looked like they were filled with rain. Yet it wasn't Shadow that answered.

"With an ending in sight, don't you think it might be worth a run?" Rage asked the group as he stopped completely, helping Prosha and Noir onto the cart.

"Maybe." Shadow simply replied, looking round to see if Natani was nearby, but Slayde was already deep in conversation. Shadow sighed and slowed down. "I presume you can run?"

"Yeah, pretty fast. I kept up with the King for speed. Don't know if I fancy my chances against the new one though." Natani replied, glancing at Terra. Terra smirked at the Wolf.

"Then I guess it may well be worth a run. If everyone is up to it of course." Shadow commented, glancing across to the other members of the group. No one objected, if anything everyone looked somewhat lightened by the fact that the desert itself was ending. Slayde started the trend off, just like when they had first started on their journey. Swiftly everyone else was following right behind him. It didn't take them long before Shadow started picking up on a lot of noise coming in one direction, and it wasn't rain.

"Shadow..?" Slayde questioned, looking towards the ebony and crimson Hedgehog as they ran.

"Yes, I can hear it too. It sounds like some kind of battlefield." Shadow replied to the unfinished question.

"Do you think we should go and check it out?" Terra questioned the two of them. "It could be one of the mobile freedom fighter armies and we could do with resupplying." Shadow glanced over to her and silently nodded. After a few moments he spoke.

"Yes, I think it would be wise for us to go and investigate." Shadow confirmed. Slayde tilted slightly to the right and the rest of the group followed suit. Soon enough a full blown army came into sight of Shadow and soon enough the rest of the group could see it. There was almost awe at the sheer number of people who were outside of Aragot's walls, knowing that far more existed within. Pretty soon they began to slow down, they were underneath the rain now, and they did not want to cause too much surprise to the army. It soon became pretty obvious what they were attacking was none other than one of Robotnik's bases. The group approached the back of the army wearily, not wanting the freedom fighters to mistake them for Curruptians intent on attacking them.

"Who goes there!" Cried out someone near the back. He looked like some kind of guard who had been left at the back just for the previously stated reason.

"We're a group of travellers from Aragot, seeking supplies and shelter. We may be able to help you in some way in return." Slayde shouted out to the man from a distance. Slayde seemed to have taken on the role of spokesperson for the group without anyone even realising.

"I can see at least two of the corrupted beings with you. I shall not allow you to go any further." He cried out. Slayde turned to Shadow.

"Seems we should have hidden those two." Slayde commented quietly so only those standing near him could hear.

"And if they were discovered half way through then the repercussions would have been far worse." Shadow replied to him quietly. "If you could just allow us to rest for a bit and provide us with some small supplies we would happily leave without being a nuisance." Shadow stated simply to the guard.

"If you made yourselves a nuisance half of the free army would be down on you. Go from here and spread your corruption elsewhere." He stated to them loudly.

"Well we tried." Shadow stated calmly as he turned to walk away, much to the surprise of the others. "Some idiots just can't be reasoned with." Shadow told them to prevent any questions. Though Shadow then turned back to face the army. "I recognise that voice." He muttered so only those with the best ears could hear him. Suddenly a green Crocodile pushed his way through the back of the Army. He looked over to the group. Half recognising some of them.

"Shadow, Sonic, Amy! It's been a while!" Vector announced cheerfully for one in such a battle as he parted the last of the crowds to start walking to them.

"Vector!" Amy yelled in disbelief as she walked towards him. "It's been far too long!" The two of them shared a brief hug, causing a slight flicked of emotion to course through Shadow, though he ignored it. The Croc was in full military gear, with the insignia of a General. He had multiple scars on the visible parts of his flesh and yet still somehow had the same headphones as he used to, although they had a makeshift microphone sticking nearby his mouth.

"I see you've worked yourself up in the ranks my old friend." Sonic announced as he high fived the Croc. Vector looked at his hand and shook it immediately after.

"You've become a lot stronger since the last time I saw you Sonic." Vector commented, temptation to duel Sonic evident on his face. "Though now isn't the time for that, I'm in the middle of issuing commands in a battle."

"What's going on here then? Tails never told us of a battle taking place so near to our planned route." Shadow asked the Croc.

"Soon after you left all of the mobile armies received word from Tails and Duality that we were to begin full blown assaults upon the nearest base to us. We already travelled to one and took one out so now we're at this one and have been a while, I presume you were crossing the desert in that time, there are a few bases in this area. We have to take all three out one by one, we were in a completely different area to this before we took out that first one in this area. He seems to like making them in threes."

"Why are there so many bases?" Amy questioned. Vector gave her a puzzled look. "Well I mean, his larger robots strength in comparison to a normal Mobian is undeniable. Why does he need more than a couple in a given continent?" Amy asked, awaiting an answer.

"Well you may not know this, but when the Earth and Mobius fused into one. A lot that was once ocean disappeared. It's rumoured that Earth and Mobius looked virtually identical but, when the two fused, instead of the landmasses appearing on top of each other and causing serious damage, the parts of the Earth simple took up unoccupied areas in Mobius' oceans. Before you came out of that room only a third of a planet was landmass and two thirds was water right? Well now the planet is two thirds landmass, one third water. It's been strange, as almost the entire planet is now just two land masses, and a few small islands. America, Europe, Asia, Africa. They're all the same land mass now. And the rest makes up the remaining landmass. Unless of course you count Antarctica, but no one ever seems to." Vector concluded. Shadow was pleased with that answer, it explained why the desert that they had crossed was so big. "Eggman built bases as strategically as possible when the landmass came through, and even some before that as if he would know where the landmass would come through. It was a bit strange." Vector concluded, looking at them to see their reactions.

"You've come a long way since the computer room." Shadow mumbled, intending no one hear him. Slayde sniggered.

"Sorry I missed that, say that again?" Vector questioned, obviously missing the statement completely.

"Nothing important, I assure you." Slayde answered before Shadow did. Vector looked at the two suspiciously.

"I guess you guys are here to resupply?" Vector questioned, though he sounded as if he knew the answer already.

"Yes, we do need to resupply. We seem to find ourselves low and we do really need to get some more before we continue to the next area we need to go to." Shadow informed him.

"I'd happily help you with resupplying if we didn't need all we have for our assaults on the bases in this area. As such, if you can help us with this particular base I believe that I can give you the excess supplies that we would have needed to continue with the assault. I imagine that you and Sonic will be able to take the base down far faster than we could, and that's not including your allies who I assume have power close to you.

"Actually Terra here is slightly stronger than me." Shadow motioned Terra. "She's been training in the Village of Chaos since she was a small child." Shadow concluded, Terra awkwardly waved to Vector.

"That's pretty impressive." Vector replied, a genuinely awestruck look on his face. "So what do you think to my request?"

"I'll have to ask the others what they think about this, since I won't be the only one participating." Shadow told the Croc before turning around.

"Yeah, we're fine with it. We need a bit of practice taking these things down before we do it solo anyways." Slayde told him as he quickly glanced at the others to make sure they were in agreement, Terra nodded and Rage shrugged. "There you go."

"Well I guess that's your answer Vector." Shadow replied to the Croc. Vector nodded, he held his finger to the side of the headphones with the microphone and spoke into it. "I'd like some communication headsets brought to my location immediately." He announced to whoever was on the other end. He stood there paused for a few seconds before turning back to the group, presumably waiting for confirmation. "Ah, Steve. This is Shadow, Sonic and Amy."

"The Sonic? As in Dark Sonic, our commander?" The Human guard known as Steve asked with shock on his face. "I'm ever so sorry, I didn't realise who you were in your normal state." He told them as he saluted. In fact the rest of the people just a bit behind him had pause what they were doing to stop and salute. Sonic rubbed his head in embarrassment.

"There's no need to salute him if you have more important things to do." Shadow announced in irritation to those in the background. Now that Shadow had mentioned something Sonic and the others that didn't have such good sight realised they were actually medics and were looking after the wounded.

"Yes, please keep up with the good work, some people might need your urgent attention." Sonic told them quickly, thinking that maybe if there was a medic close enough Knuckles may well have been saved. Terra glanced at him as if she knew what he was thinking and put her right hand on his left shoulder.

"No need to dwell on that anymore Blur." She told him quietly so no one else would hear, of course those with great hearing did anyway. Sonic nodded mutely.

"Just me and Rose should be enough to take this base down. I want to see her progress." Shadow stated to the rest of the group. Rage shrugged, seeming unbothered. Sonic just took it as a cue to go and talk to Vector. In fact, the only person who seemed to have a problem with it was Terra.

"I was looking forward to being able to smash some robots up." She commented heavily.

"I'm sure that you can take the next one with Sonic if you wish, this is simply the way that I want it to be." Shadow commented. He looked towards where Slayde was just standing to ask him his opinion, but Slayde had vanished into the crowds. "Odd." Shadow commented.

"If the others want to fight we shouldn't stop them Shadow." Amy told him. "I know that you want to see how I'm doing, but you spar with me at night sometimes when the others are asleep, so you should know anyway."

"I can't be completely sure how much progress you're making anymore Rose. Your physical abilities at the very least have hit a stage where sparing with you is actually also helping me improve. So I need to be able to observe you from an outside perspective to be able to do that, and I feel that if the others are there I will not be able to get an accurate reading." Shadow told her, concluding the argument as Amy was blushing.

"Did you just indirectly compliment my fighting skills?" She asked. Shadow smirked at her.

"I guess I did." Shadow replied simply. "So is that okay with you Terra?" Shadow double checked, not wanting to offend her.

"Yes, that is fine then." Terra commented, turning to talk to Natani. Shadow noticed they were talking about the Curruptians, so he blocked it out.

"We'll get started right away then Rose." Shadow told Amy, Vector over heard.

"You should all go in at once, these bases aren't easy to take over you know." Vector commented, a loud explosion was heard in the background. He quickly held his hand to he ear. "Status report?" Shadow used his ears to pick up what was being said.

"There was just bomb set off underneath a large potion of the army, we don't know how many casualties there are. Robots are pouring out to try and finish off the rest." The person on the other end of the line told him. Vector turned to tell Shadow, but found that him and Amy had both vanished. He turned to see a pink and a black streak running through the crowds.

"I've sent some back up, they may not look like much, but they are some of my personal friends. Get some medics down to those troops immediately, as many as can be spared." Vector told him as the two sped towards the scene.

"Ready for this Rose?" Shadow asked her as they ran through the crowds. Amy nodded, concentrating too much on the running to think about anything else. They suddenly came out of the crowd to a load of cracked and damaged earth. There were soldiers laying on the ground everywhere many of them obviously injured, some of them unmoving. The ones who could still move properly seemed to be helping the ones who couldn't stand and seemed to be trying to take them further back.

"This is terrible." Amy commented as they sped up due to not having as many blockages, though the ground was uneven due to the explosion. "I hope that not too many people have died." She announced with a worried tone. Shadow secretly smiled, finding Amy's concern admirable. As the two approached the front lines robots came into view. Shadow suddenly sped up and jumped, homing attacking into the nearest one. Amy followed suit and within minutes the two of them were destroying the robots in a fast and orderly fashion. Only drones had been sent out against them and compared to the two fighters they were nothing. Within moments the two of them had managed to get inside the city, leaving no drones outside functioning.

"What now Shadow?" Amy asked, Shadow silently looked around for a bit.

"I suspect there will be a larger robot around somewhere. Maybe more than one." Shadow told her, charging up some energy. "_Chaos Spear!_" He shouted as he threw a fully charged chaos spear at a nearby building. It went right through the wall and caused a small explosion within. "As I suspected, there was a generator in that building. There should be 2 more in the city." Shadow told her, slowly turning. Amy hear something behind her and turned her head quickly, seeing the larger robot mere meters away from her, there was no time for her to move. "Rose!" Shadow cried as he tried to move towards her. Suddenly the robot went flying to the side, but not before Amy let off a small squeal.

"That was a close call." Slayde stated, rubbing his left shoulder that he clearly had rammed the robot with. "Are you okay Rose?" He asked her, she was clutching onto her right arm and blood was slowly trickling down her arm. "Oh damn, move your hand." He quickly looked at the wound. "It's not too bad, but it seems to have slightly caught the muscle. Can you move it?" Slayde asked her, Amy shook her head mutely, clearly in pain. "I wouldn't suggest trying to heal that without the purple Emerald nearby, and we haven't got that one yet." Slayde told her as he a strip of cloth of his t-shirt and bound it. Slayde looked up to see Shadow still frozen in the same position he had been in when the robot attacked. "Shadow. Snap out of it." Shadow shook his head and quickly came over.

"I'll take Rose to the medics." He told him quickly dashing over to the two of them, Slayde nodded as he handed Amy over to him.

"Don't take her using Chaos Control, it can make injuries worse." He quickly told him, Shadow gave him a glare that said 'I know that' causing a bit of the worry on Slayde's face to lift, but not enough for him to smirk. He turned to the robot that had hurt Amy. "Seems you've made a few people mad, by hurting Rose." Slayde said calmly. Chaos Energy blatantly leaking from his body from his silent rage.

"Emergency protocol 1A. Super powered Hedgehog." The robot announced. Slayde smirked.

"Not quite yet. I don't need it to deal with a weak robot like you." He commented as he walked forwards. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere four smaller robots zoomed towards the larger robots, fusing with it. Slayde paused and watched in bewilderment as the robots all attached to each other. As soon as they were done Slayde raised an eyebrow. "That it?" He asked tauntingly as the robot stuck one of its hands straight into the ground sparks coming from underneath. "Oh you need power? Here let me help you short circuit yourself." Slayde commented as he held his left hand up. "_Chaos Surge!_" He announced, firing it directly at the robot causing it to spasm in weird ways before he released it and it collapsed, letting out a heavy breath after from the sudden use of energy he turned. Then there was movement behind him, Slayde frowned as he turned but was greeted by a large metallic fist that he barely dodged. "Maybe I shouldn't have done that." He quickly commented as the second fist hit him and sent him flying, knocking down some of the buildings nearby that were made of concrete. Dust flew about for a few seconds before a creamy yellow being with purple eyes flew out. "That hurt." He stated, looking down to see a tear in his jeans. "And these are my favourite jeans!" He exclaimed, flying at the robot at insane speeds. The robot however managed to dodge. Slayde sighed. "Yeah, I really wish I didn't shoot you with electric now." He commented as the robot managed to land another hit on him. This time however Slayde didn't budge from where he was floating. He hit the robots fist to the side with his right hand and then swung for the robot's face with his left, managing to score a hit and leaving a dint on the frame of the robot. The force of the blow caused the robot to stumble several meters before managing to stop itself but, before it could gain its balance, Slayde let off a flurry of punches damaging its chest plate and head alike before unleashing a spinning kick into its side forcing it to fly into a nearby building, causing another explosion. "Ah, that must have been the last generator." Slayde commented, and true to his sentence the lights of the city powered off. Slayde could see some of the rubble moving. He sighed. "I normally resist using this side of Chaos." He commented as he started charging up an attack with his left hand. "_Chaos..._" The scar on his eye started lighting up and Slayde grunted, squinting with his left eye touching the scar with his right hand. "_Grenade!_" He finished loudly throwing the yellow Chaos attack at the robot that had just made it outside of the building, hitting it directly, causing the robot to vaporise along with the surrounding area in a yellow-white explosion not dissimilar to a Chaos Blast. He sighed, it was over. He turned to see that without the base fully functional, multiple smaller robots had lost their ability to move and had just collapsed on the ground. He smiled slightly before running out, intent on catching up with the two that had just left. Within moments he had caught up with them.

"I do not wish the be carried Shadow." Amy said through grit teeth. The two were walking at a pace most would consider as jogging, however to these three that was their normal walking pace.

"It would be faster if you let me run us both there." Shadow replied, in concern despite the fact that he wasn't showing it.

"I'll be fine." She told him in a tone that didn't allow for arguing. Slayde continued to walk just behind them until he was sure that they were finished.

"Hey you two." Slayde announced as he came to walk next to Amy, Shadow didn't show any reaction as he had already realised Slayde was there, and Amy smiled at him.

"Hey Slayde. Thanks for that back there." She told him sweetly. Slayde smiled back.

"It's no problem, what are friends for?" Slayde told her. "Now we have a bit more time I do have this." Slayde told her as he clicked his fingers, a medikit appearing in his hand. He pulled a fresh bandage out as the stopped and he removed the cloth he had put on before to see that the wound had already stopped bleeding, though he could tell the slightest knock would start if off again. "Your healing ability is quite impressive Rose." Slayde commented as he expertly bandaged her arm.

"Thanks." Amy replied, not sure whether that was a compliment or not. As soon as Slayde was done she moved her arm around slowly. "Thanks again." She told him as she giggle. Giving him a one armed hug.

"It's fine." Slayde replied, a little taken aback by the hug, he returned the hug with both arms. Before they both released. Amy smiled at him happily before jogging off. Slayde stood there for a few seconds, slightly awestruck. He then noticed Shadow looking right at him. Regardless of what Shadow might say Slayde knew jealousy when he saw it. Slayde smirked before running after Amy. Shadow followed immediately behind, and within a minute the three of them were back with the rest of the group, when they arrived at to where the rest of the group was they found Vector there waiting, holding three small communication headsets that fit inside the ear.

"You left before you took these, you could have communicated with one another if you'd have waited a little longer." He told them, then he noticed Amy's arm. "Oh Amy, what happened to your arm?" He asked. Amy glanced down to the bandage, as did Shadow behind her.

"I wasn't paying proper attention! Slayde had my back though, so I was okay." She replied cheerfully. Vector nodded before he turned to Shadow who was looking at Vector now.

"Thank you a lot for this. I'm surprised that just three of you managed to take it down so fast, even if we had been here for a while before you arrived and taken down a few of the large robots." Vector announced to all of them Shadow glanced to Amy's bandaged right arm again.

"Actually, Slayde did most of the work by himself... It was a little harder than I was initially expecting." Shadow stated as he looked back to Vector, the urge to look at Amy again evident on his face.

"Well I was wondering if you wanted to stay with the army for the night, and help us with our next attack. It will conclude the ones in this area and we will be able to finally go home for a while." Vector asked, Shadow was about to object, however Sonic quickly spoke up.

"We'd love to. I'd like to spend some more time with your men! How long will it take us to get there?" Sonic asked, clearly not thinking about the others of the group. Shadow shrugged, maybe the rest would be good for the group and it would give him a chance to train Amy a bit more.

"It'll take us six days to get to the next base we know it isn't your problem, but we would greatly appreciate the help. The soldiers are all I'm thinking of. We haven't been home for over half a year." Vector told them. Amy turned to Shadow.

"I think we should help. Who knows how long these guys could take trying to take down this last base." Amy put across her opinion to Shadow. Shadow nodded mutely.

"Fine then. The group could do with a rest anyway." He told Vector as he once again looked at Amy's bandage.

"Thank you." Vector said simply as he started to walk back into the crowd, holding his hand to his ear. "Everyone has cleared the area, activate it. Also, we need to get ready to mobilise. We're moving tomorrow at 1200 hours..." He started as he faded into the sound of the crowd of injured and medics, there was a sudden loud explosion coming from Robotnik's base, leaving the entire thing cloaked in smoke, the shock wave could be felt by the group. Slayde leaned on Shadow's shoulder.

"It wasn't your fault Shadow." He whispered into his ear before moving over to Amy. Shadow just stood there and stared at Amy as she was distracted by the smoke, wondering why the pink Hedgehog was starting to mean so much to him.

"How's your arm?" Slayde asked Amy. Amy turned and smiled at him.

"Well it would be far worse than my arm if you hadn't appeared when you did." Amy replied. Slayde just smiled back.

"I was in the right place at the right time, I'm glad that nothing bad happened to you, little bro over there seems to fancy you." Slayde stated merrily before turning to Shadow slowly. "I probably shouldn't have called him that." Slayde quickly said before glancing at Shadow who was glaring at him.

"I do not have feelings for Rose." Shadow replied in irritation. Slayde smirked, amused at the fact he ignored the name over that, his reaction virtually proved in Slayde's own mind that he was right.

"Of course not Shadow." Slayde answered before he turned and walked over to Rage, leaving Shadow and Amy alone. Amy gave Shadow a funny look.

"You sure?" She asked him calmly. Shadow folded his arms.

"Of course I'm sure Rose." He told her equally as calm. Amy smiled at him, yet it wasn't her usual smile as a hint of sadness seemed to linger in her eyes.

_Monday evening (The next day)_

"I'm impressed you've healed so fast Rose." Shadow commended Amy, the two of them had fallen behind from the army. The army was setting up camp for the night as the sun was about to set and they had been moving since midday.

"Well as you can see, my arm is fine. Can we please spar now? After being caught off guard like that I don't want it to happen again." Amy told him quite firmly, obviously not ready to take no for an answer.

"Well Rose, I-" Shadow started, but Amy interrupted.

"You best not be about to come up with some reason as to why we can't, because if you do I'm just going to attack you anyway." Amy fiercely told him. Shadow held his hands up.

"Fine I'll spar with you. But it's light sparring, okay?" Shadow told her, Amy nodded. He pulled himself into a defensive stance, but before he even realised it Amy had thrown a left hok at him. He quickly parried it and punched her in her wrist. Surprising Amy and making her jump back holding her wrist.

"You're actually fighting back." She commented.

"You wanted to get better so that you wouldn't get caught unawares. I think it's about time that I actually properly fought back rather than those little manoeuvres I did before." Shadow replied, dropping his guard. "I thought you'd be pleased." Shadow concluded, looking like he was concerned he made the wrong decision.

"Oh I am." Amy replied as she leaped at him with her full speed, putting her full strength behind her right hook. Shadow wasn't expecting an attack so suddenly, especially with her recently healed arm, and attempted to dodge but Amy's fist just barely grazed his jaw as he jumped back. Shadow stood a few metres away from her in surprise as Amy looked at her fist. "I actually managed to hit you." She commented in shock after a few seconds.

"Yes Rose, you did." Shadow replied with an equal amount of shock. He quickly shook it off. "You've come a long way from that weak Hedgehog who asked me to train her just three and a half months ago." Shadow told her, Amy looked surprised.

"It's been that long already?" She exclaimed, genuinely surprised. Shadow nodded.

"It's the sixteenth of April, you asked me to train you on the second of January." He confirmed, shocking her further with the fact that he remembered the dates.

"To be honest I never found out the date when we were staying in that city and, because it was daytime almost all the time, the time we spent into the forest had just blurred into one." Amy told him. Shadow nodded.

"I imagine for someone who is not used to it, it must have been very difficult to keep track of time." Shadow commented, Amy nodded. "Rose, I think we should head to the others." Shadow told her, continuing a little louder so she couldn't throw up any protests. "You managed to land a hit on me, and not many people have managed to do that. Even when I'm off guard. I think it'd be better if we continued this tomorrow night so that I can think of how I'm going to train you next." Shadow concluded as the two of them slowly walked back to the rest of them.

_Wednesday Evening_

"I'm sorry I was too busy to spar with you yesterday Rose." Shadow told her quietly. Amy shrugged.

"It's fine, I got Rage to spar with me instead while you, Sonic and Slayde were busy with Vector." Amy replied, Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"And how did you find that?" He asked her, she smiled happily.

"It was quite fun actually, he fought me perfectly at my level, though he didn't seem to be out of breath at the end of it like I was." Amy replied, Shadow nodded slowly. He wasn't entirely sure what the capabilities of Rage was, but he suspected that they were above Amy's level.

"Care to show me how you're doing with your inner Chaos?" Shadow asked suddenly Amy looked at him for a second, before she silently agreed, wondering what Shadow was up to and held her hands slightly apart from each other almost exactly like Shadow had shown her months ago. A light orange sphere appeared in her hands, almost completely taking up all the space in her hands. Amy let out a small breath before releasing it.

"Wow Rose, I should have gotten you to do that sooner. You're a level 10 Orange, and you're pretty close to becoming a yellow. Your progress is astounding, I don't think I've known anyone progress that fast, not even myself." Shadow commented, Amy smiled from the compliment. "Last time I got you to do that you were barely an orange in the forest." Shadow concluded in surprise.

"Thanks, I've been trying my hardest." Amy replied cheerfully. "You're a really good teacher."

"Thank you Rose, but I'm starting to wonder if there is more to you than meets the eye." Shadow revealed to her. She shrugged.

"We going to spar now then?" She asked excitedly, getting ready into a defensive stance.

"No actually." Shadow started, a look of disappointment lit up Amy's features. "I think you're ready, probably past ready, to start actually learning Chaos Techniques." Shadow finished. Amy's eyes popped open in excitement.

"Really?!" She asked in joy. "I've been waiting for this for ages!" Amy virtually sang. Shadow sat down on the ground, fortunately there was no rain here, in fact the cloud was very thin from the destruction of two bases in the area. Amy sat opposite him, waiting.

"Hmm, what to start with?" He asked himself again, as he had done the past two days just in case this happened, as he suspected it would. "Well I know that you watched how to do the Chaos Spear without me actually showing you anything." Shadow commented, looking at her. She blushed.

"You just use the move all the time, it was easy to pick up just from watching how you did it." Amy replied quickly, clearly embarrassed.

"It's fine Rose." Shadow told her, he suddenly threw her his Emerald. "I'll try teach you how to use Chaos Control so that you don't accidentally split yourself." Shadow told her as he stood.

"Split yourself?" Amy questioned, looked at him funnily. Shadow nodded.

"If you're not concentrating right, or you don't use the flow of Energy correctly you can cause yourself injuries by leaving parts of yourself behind. Normally it will just be bits of external flesh, but people have lost limbs to it before." Shadow informed her. She looked concerned. "Don't worry Rose, you're a natural. Sonic managed to use Chaos Control just fine for the first time with a fake Emerald and he did just fine." Amy smirked, recalling the incident.

"Okay, so you need to get a place in your minds eyes. Normally it would be a place you know that you try to practice in, but I don't think we know many places besides Aragot. We can't practice there for obvious reasons. So that hill just over there, try to focus on the base of it, think of it in your minds eye and, when you feel confident, use the move." Shadow told her slowly a softly, taking a step back so that Amy could concentrate properly. Amy stood there for a fair few seconds, silently thinking with the Emerald held up, before sighing and turning.

"I can't." She told him, he walked up to her and put either hand on either side of the Emerald.

"Think of a place nearby." He instructed. She closed her eyes and looked like she was concentrating. "You got it?" He questioned, she nodded mutely. The two of them disappeared in a flash of green, only to reappeared inside the middle of the camp, Slayde jumped back.

"The hell are you using Chaos Control for such short distances for Shadow?!" He exclaimed before he looked to Amy. "Oh, you're training Rose. Continue as you are then I guess..." He told the two of them as he walked outside the camp, heading towards the empty plains behind the army himself. Shadow squinted and could see Rage awaiting him in the distance.

"Okay, this time we're going to do it the other way round." Shadow told her, she was still looking around in bewilderment.

"I actually did this?" Amy asked. Shadow smirked.

"We both did Rose, you thought of the place and I activated the move. Now we're going to do it the other way around. I'll think of a place, and you activate the move. Okay? Clear your mind." Shadow instructed her, she did as he said and closed her eyes, her face fully relaxing. Shadow thought of an area directly next to Rage.

"_Chaos Control._" Amy muttered weakly. The two of them disappeared in another green flash and reappeared right next to Rage who didn't so much as blink an eyelid.

"Well done Amy." Rage told her. Shadow raised an eyebrow at him. "I saw you looking at me, I made an educated guess." Rage answered the unasked question.

"Ah, so that's why you was unsurprised." Shadow commented. Rage looked over to where Slayde was jogging from.

"Indeed." He replied quietly.

"I did it Shadow!" Amy exclaimed, Shadow smiled at her.

"Yes, you did." He replied. She hugged him, taking him by surprise, he slowly hugged her back with one arm, not entirely sure what to do. She released him just as Slayde arrived. "What you did was actually harder to do than normal Chaos Control because you took someone else with you. I suspected the addition of risking me would make your more likely to get it right. Seems my risk paid off. You should be able to do it just fine by yourself now. Try using it to teleport a ring around the army's camp." Shadow told her. She nodded, looking over into the distance before muttering the words and disappearing in a flash of green, reappearing in the distance before disappearing out of view behind the army. "So what are you two up to?" Shadow asked them.

"Sparring." Slayde told him casually. Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" Shadow questioned. Slayde sighed in exasperation.

"No, I just thought I'd lie to you." Slayde said sarcastically. Rage sniggered, Shadow just looked at Slayde disapprovingly.

"I wanted to ask you a question Rage, now that we're on better terms." Shadow told him, Rage looked at him with marginal surprise but nodded.

"Go ahead." He told Shadow.

"Why did you have red eyes when we first met?" Shadow questioned. "And how did you change them?" He asked, Rage looked taken aback, clearly expecting another question. He glanced to Slayde.

"Well you see the gene for red eyes is less dominant then the gene for green eyes. So I have dominant green eye gene and a recessive red eye gene. The Doctor had, seemingly, placed a device on me that brought out my recessive gene because that was what he preferred. It's nothing too sinister I assure you." Rage informed him. Shadow nodded, satisfied with the information that Rage had provided him.

"That makes sense. It makes me wonder though. Red is a rare eye colour, even among Mobians. Who could your parents have been to make an Emerald green and Ruby red combination?" Shadow mentioned, a realisation dawned on his face. Rage glanced to Slayde. "Ah." Shadow simply said. "Have fun with your sparring." He told them as he slowly walked off, Slayde looked at Rage and Rage shrugged.

"See, he's much cooler than you think. He just doesn't normally show it." Slayde told him after Shadow had travelled a fair distance, though he was fairly certain that Shadow would have heard him. A few seconds later Amy was standing next to them.

"Where's Shadow?" She questioned, slightly out of breath despite using the Emerald. Slayde pointed towards the camp.

"Can you not see him, he's about 100 metres that way." Slayde told her. Amy squinted, not able to see very well in the almost dark. "I'd suggest getting to the camp, we only have about ten minutes of light left." Slayde told her. "Try just thinking of walking about that far, in that direction rather than looking for a specific place, it's much more practical in a fight." Slayde helped, Amy looked at him with surprise. "I can teach too!" He defended himself. Amy giggled.

"Okay, thanks." She told him before she breathed out. Clearly thinking. "_Chaos Control!_" She announced with far more confidence. Slayde and Rage saw the flash of green in the distance almost right next to Shadow.

"She's getting better fast." Rage commented. Slayde turned and smiled at him, nodding.

"Yes she is, she clearly had a lot of hidden potential." Slayde agreed before smirking at him, and cracking his fingers. "You ready then?" He questioned. Rage moved into a defensive position.

"Of course." He replied before Slayde leaped at him.

_Saturday_

"We'll arrive early tomorrow." Vector commented from within the central command tent. It was already dark and the group had all congregated inside the main tent. "This was a base that was previously taken down that Eggman managed to successfully take back. But just because of that don't expect it to be weak. It likely had most of the robots that were missing in the previous two at it. Which is why those two fell so fast.

"No I know that this is going to be difficult for you, with so many still injured. But after this we can all return home." Vector told the whole army over some kind of intercom. He stood and slowly walked over to the group. "You guys are going to help us finish this faster than we thought would be possible. Our army may have many Mobians stronger and faster than average, but none compare to you lot." Vector told them. "Go get some rest, I'll see you before you go." He advised before he turned to some people that looked like they were planning the war effort.

The group exited the tent one by one. Only Terra was left.

"Do you have any agents in there already, trying to infiltrate the place?" She questioned. Vector raised an eyebrow.

"No we don't. The advanced units will be deployed in the early hours of the morning." Vector told her.

"Could you delay them until after we arrive?" She asked him. He folded his arms.

"And why would we do that?" He questioned her, looking at her carefully with some suspicion. This was the first time he had actually spoken to the brown Echidna.

"I have a plan, and anyone in the city will be at risk of getting hurt." She told him quietly. He unfolded his arms.

"And what is this... Plan?" Vector asked quickly, not wanting to agree to anything without the full details. Terra sighed.

"I can't really say. Just if your advanced unit guys are below Orange level of Chaos, don't send them in." Terra told him.

"Orange, what?" Vector asked. "Wait, I think I recall someone telling me about this. If I recall properly two of them are. But why would that make a difference?" He asked.

"May I speak to them?" She asked him. Vector gave her a funny look.

"No, you may not." Vector told her. A female grey Wolf stepped behind Vector.

"It's okay Vector." She told him, the Croc turned to look at her as another, male, Grey wolf stepped next to the other one.

"We'll talk with her, she doesn't seem evil and, she stays around Sonic a lot. So she can't be too bad." He told Vector. The Croc shrugged, walking over to the other side of the tent.

"What do you need with us?" The female asked. Terra surveyed the both of them quietly for a second.

"I presume that you're suppressing some of your power?" She questioned them. The both of them looked at her funnily.

"What makes you say that?" The male Wolf asked. The female shifted uncomfortably.

"Hmm." Terra mumbled before quickly placing a hand on the both of their shoulders, all three of them disappearing in a flash of yellow. To reappear a fair distance away as the camp wasn't even in sight.

"Where are we?" The male wolf shouted in an outcry.

"Far enough for you both to show me how strong you really are. I presume that your entire team underplays your powers just in case an enemy gets hold of the information." Terra told them both. The both of them looked at her in surprise.

"How can you tell?" They questioned at the same time. She smiled.

"Because I too am doing it." She informed them. The looked at her with a bit of shock. The female spoke first.

"But you've got to be a level 2-3 yellow right now. Just how strong are you unsuppressed?" The Wolf questioned.

"A low level 10 or high level 9 depending on how tired I am." Terra replied. "All of the Hedgehogs in our group are yellow except for the pink one, who I do believe is pretty close to becoming one anyway." Terra informed them, the pair were visibly surprised.

"Our entire group is orange, I'm the only yellow." The female replied. "I suspect my husband here would be at the same strength as that pink Hedgehog if your gauge of her power is accurate. The rest are mid-level orange."

"I presume all of your group is familiar with Chaos Shield?" Terra questioned her, she nodded. Terra threw a small stone to the female Wolf and she caught it.

"What's this?" She asked, holding up the seemly normal brown stone, no larger than a pebble.

"If that starts to get red hot then do a group Chaos Shield and don't break it off until it starts cooling down. It's in sync with my Chaos energies. It'll be the only warning you get." Terra told them.

"Warning from what?" The male asked.

"Death." Replied Terra simply before she grabbed the both of their shoulders again and they were back in the same spot in the tent they were in just minutes ago. "See you some other time, maybe." Terra told the both of them and left as Natani re-entered the tent. Walking up to the two that Terra had just finished with.

_Sunday – Day of the Attack_

"Is that it?" Terra asked the rest of the group, the sun had just come up high enough to light up the place through the clouds. Shadow surveyed the base they were heading to. Admittedly it was small compared to the other bases they had seen so far. But it was still the size of a small town. "This is going to take like, five minutes." She commented in annoyance, clearly still annoyed that Shadow didn't want her to help with the taking down of the previous base.

"It may be smaller, but Vector said that there would be more robots at this one than the last, so it should not be a problem in regards of not having much to do." Shadow replied to her. She still didn't look overly impressed.

"At least my plan on starting this attack with be much more effective with a smaller area." Terra commented. Shadow looked at her suspiciously.

"What plan?" He questioned, she just smiled at him and tapped the side of her nose.

"You'll see." Terra replied. Shadow didn't look overly impressed that she was holding the information from him.

"This best not something you know I'll disagree with." Shadow told her. She laughed.

"And what would you actually do to stop me if it was something you'd hate?" Terra questioned him with a smirk. This of course stumped Shadow. When the last time Shadow had been challenged like that he didn't know, it had of course been a long time since he wasn't the most powerful person in any given group.

"I'd back him up." Slayde chipped in, much to Terra's surprise. "Though it wouldn't help us much since Sonic would back you up and before we knew it we would have an all out war between the four of us." Terra just turned away from the two, smiling.

"I don't need your help." Shadow told Slayde. Slayde looked disappointed and disheartened.

"Come on Shadow, I was just trying to help you out. No need to be like that." He told him before he dropped back to walk with Rage again, leaving Shadow at the front with Terra again. Shadow sighed, the all of them walked in complete silence for ten minutes before the army came to a stop. They started erecting medical tents at the back while the front line started to move forward. Terra looked over to Sonic and smirked to him. The both of them vanished in flashes of yellow.

"The hell are those two up to?" Shadow asked the air as he squinted to see if they reappeared in his sight. Sure enough he could see two black Hedgehogs hovering over the city of metal. The two of them were holding each others hands and spinning in circles slowly. Shadow frowned.

"What are they doing?" Slayde asked as he walked to stand next to the Shadow, looking at the same spot.

"I think they're about to use Chaos Blast." Rage commented from behind the both of them, walking between the two. "Can you not see the slight glow on their hands?" He asked them. Amy stepped out next to Shadow.

"All I can see is dots. How the heck can you three see that far away in such detail?" Amy asked.

"It's a gift." Slayde commented lightly, making it sound like a joke. Shadow tutted as he turned to her.

"You too will be able to do it one day if you train enough Rose." Shadow told her, looking back to the other two floating above the town of metal.

_With Terra_

"You ready?" Terra asked Sonic. The two of them had been gathering their power together ready to unleash a massive Chaos blast, devastating the town. "Bare in mind this is just a test. If it doesn't destroy the larger robots there's no point in doing it again." Sonic nodded.

"Yeah, I'm ready." He replied. Terra closed her eyes for a moment, as if concentrating on something far away.

"Glad I gave them that stone." Terra told him as the pair four power levels surge below them. The both of them looked into each others eyes and shouted in unison.

"_Chaos Blast!_" They shouted in unison. The wall of yellow Chaos expanding from the two of them, shrouding the entire city in light. Within seconds it had dispersed. The two of them breathless from the attack. Most the city had been reduced to nothingness, only a few buildings that must have been constructed with Chaosanium remained.

"Well there we go, looks like we did it." Sonic commented breathlessly. Terra laughed.

"You know, I'm not even sure if I'd want to try doing that on a larger target now I think about it." Terra told him. Sonic laughed too and the two hugged in mid air. Then they were surrounded by 9 robots, all of them looking like the Egg Emperor style. "Uh oh." Terra stated simply as the to got back to back, still breathless.

"This might be a bit more of a challenge with us being so tired." Sonic commented. Three of the robots spontaneously exploded. The smoke quickly clear to reveal a creamy yellow Slayde and Shadow from two of the explosions, with a normal looking Amy holding onto Shadow's hand as she got used to the floating, and a floating Rage at the other.

"Glad I know how to use my Chaos to fly, or I'd have been stuck unable to help." Rage commented. "Want me to take yours Sonic, you look tired." Rage teased.

"I think I'm fine thanks." Sonic told him as he zoomed towards one of the robots. Everyone had one robot each, and as such within seconds they were all destroyed. Minus one. All the fighters looked as Amy dodged and swerved away from all the robots attacks. Rage, Sonic and Terra looked like they wanted to go ahead and destroy the robot but they held back. Slayde was just smirking at her and Shadow looked a little irritated.

"Rose, stop practising and just finish it off. I don't care if you only learnt how to do that yesterday." Shadow told her sternly. Amy quickly turned to Shadow and stuck her tongue out before dodging the things next attack and flying behind it.

"_Chaos Spear!_" Amy shouted, hitting it in the back of the neck with a yellow bolt of energy. Slayde mouthed 'what?' and the others stared at her in shock. "There, I did- What are you all staring at?"

"Rose, you were an orange 4 days ago." Slayde told her. She looked at him funny.

"Oh, yeah. That attack was yellow wasn't it? Neat." Amy commented as if it wasn't in any form of a big deal. Most the group sweat dropped.

"In that case you can teleport back by yourself." Shadow commented as he grabbed Terra and Sonic's shoulders before disappearing in a flash of green.

"But I can't do that!" Amy exclaimed as Rage also vanished. Slayde looked at her.

"Can you feel Shadow's power from here?" He asked her. She nodded mutely. "Visualise Shadow, you standing right next to him as you focus on that power and use the move. It's a good way to get to someone specific." He told her. Waiting for her to teleport before he went in case she couldn't do it. Amy exhaled slowly, visualising Shadow.

"_Chaos Control._" She said quietly, disappearing in a flash of yellow. Slayde smiled happily before he too vanished in a flash of yellow.

* * *

"Thanks for everything guys. I must say, that was impressive." Vector told them as they collected the last of the supplies that they were being given and were placing them inside the cart. "When we get back, I'll be sure to tell everyone of this impressive display."

"It was no problem Vector, we were glad to help out." Sonic told him, rubbing his nose in his trademark way.

"I assure you, it was no problem. The base was tiny anyway." Terra told him. The Croc smiled.

"I'll take my leave, you're all ready to go and there's still plenty of daylight to burn. I hope I see you all one day soon." He told them before walking into the crowd, holding his hand to his ear again as he left.

"Time to leave then I guess." Shadow told them all, looking over to the hill in the distance they were heading towards. Most of them started walking slowly, slightly disheartened from leaving the company of so many people. However Natani didn't move. Shadow and Slayde noticed at almost the exact same time.

"Are you not coming Natani?" Slayde questioned before Shadow managed to. The wolf looked uncomfortable.

"I'm going to stay with the army, and join the advanced unit." Natani told them. They looked at the Wolf in surprise. "The small group will be ideal for me. There's only four of them."

"Are you sure? It could get difficult." Shadow told Natani. The Wolf nodded.

"This is the right path for me to take." Natani told them. The Wolf start to walk of into the crowd. Then the wolf paused, throwing something to Slayde before continuing. "I'll see you again, I'm sure."

"Yeah, okay, see you about Natani." Slayde replied to the Wolf, placing the item in his rucksack as the crowd consumed Natani. The group stood there, paused for a while.

"Well that was unexpected." Amy announced to the group as they started walking.

"Yes Rose it was." Shadow replied. The group walked in silence until they had made it over to a hill, that would make the army disappear from their sights. When they made it to the top of the hill Sonic turned around to look at the army laid out in front of him.

"Gonna miss those guys." He announced before turning and walking down the hill behind the others, putting an arm over Terra's shoulder.


	14. 13 Fourth Assault and Beasts in the Dark

_Fourth Assault and Beasts in the Dark_

"I still think it's a shame we had to leave them. I was enjoying myself." Sonic stated disheartenedly.

"Well we couldn't have stayed with them forever. They needed to go back for supplies and orders, and we need to press on with finding these Emeralds and making sure that no one manages to do anything bad with them and put the world in even worse a state." Shadow commented, Sonic looked at him funnily.

"I thought we were trying to save the world by destroying each of these bases one by one?" Sonic asked. Shadow sighed and was about to answer, but Slayde took control of the conversation.

"And a hedgehog can't have a secondary objective? Of course the primary objective is to free the world of Robotnik's enslavement. But we also need too make sure that he can't make anything worse than he already has. Or anyone else for that matter. Who knows what kind of creatures have mutated due to this unnatural climate?" Slayde informed him. Sonic just shrugged and carried on walking. "So the next base we're hitting has an Emerald in right Shadow?" Slayde questioned, the people at the back of the group with them looked at him, being Amy, Ebony and Rage. Shadow nodded, pulling his map out.

"Tails marked where he suspected five Emeralds are. Though the Emeralds are near impossible to pinpoint with a detector due to their immense power it is possible to generalise where they are within tens of miles. Two were marked in the desert, which we have now, one was marked in the area where we are now, there's only a single base of the Doctors around here so it's most likely there, then there is one near three bases clustered together, and there's one more location marked off this continent. There's one that we already had, and the last one wasn't detectable."

"What could that mean?" Amy asked. Shadow sighed.

"It means something has swallowed it. Like back when Big's frog decided to swallow one. For some reason the biology of some creatures manages to make the signal impossible to detect. Though I might be able to tell if I'm close enough to the creature... This will be the hardest one to find." Shadow told them all.

"Know what I find odd?" Rage asked suddenly. Which was strange because he normally stayed out of the main discussions.

"And what's that?" Shadow replied with a question of his own as he turned with his arms folded. Rage smirked at him.

"Well it just seems somewhat off that the doctor hasn't decided to move all these Emeralds he has to where he is. I can only guess he's too busy for that." Rage told them. Shadow frowned.

"Something that would distract him from the Emeralds would be something to worry about indeed. Any ideas what?" Shadow questioned him, wondering if the ex-robotnik cyborg would know anything.

"One hears rumours, even when working around robots. As many of us had some degree of self control. He was said to have been working on something that dwarfs anything he's ever worked on before." Rage told them all. The whole group frowned.

"If that is true then that could be something to worry about indeed." Sonic commented suddenly. "We would be best trying to get all these Emeralds and confront him before he has time to finish it." He told them.

"So what's the plan?" Slayde asked. Shadow smirked.

"I actually have a very simple plan for this one; me and Rose will infiltrate the base and search for the Emerald, while Sonic and Terra distract the robots. You shall locate the generators and destroy them, sound good?" Shadow finished.

"So we're going a tad less flash this time? Sounds good." Terra commented. Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I wonder who made the biggest flash last time." He reminded her, she just grinned at him.

"Yeah, I wonder." She replied cheekily. Shadow just smirked despite himself.

"Then let's get going. Rage, meet us outside with your friends." He told them. Quickly running towards the base, Sonic, Terra and Amy in toe.

"Laters, guys!" Slayde commented to them all before running off after them.

* * *

It didn't take long for the group to separate into their subgroups. Shadow and Amy were quietly walking in the dark shadows of an alley, trying to avoid being seen as most of the robots ran past them towards the commotion that was going on outside. Quietly they snuck themselves into the centre of the base finding themselves in a production room full of robots awaiting activation for Robotnik's next attack on Aragot. Shadow looked towards Amy and put his finger to his mouth before walking forward slowly. There was a very loud bang outside and the two paused. Looking at the robots to see if they had activated from it. The two continued after noticing they hadn't. There must have been about ten thousand robots in this room. Even for the duo It would take them a while to deal with them if they were all to turn on. A couple more bangs came from outside and the two paused again. The robots were still inactive. Amy let out a sigh of relief and went to move forwards only to find that she was suddenly surrounded by robots.

"Really? A sigh? The banging doesn't do anything but a sigh does!?" She commented angrily as she clicked for her hammer and started smashing the robots in a spectacular fashion. Shadow had faded from view but she could hear him taking down as many robots as she was. She realised she hadn't used her hammer for a while and noted that she shouldn't forget about it because it was still a formidable weapon.

Shadow glanced over to Amy to see her smashing robots with her hammer. He quickly back flipped out of the way of one robots attack and delivered a devastating kick to another causing it to fly into 3 other robots and breaking them all. These robots were mere fodder and it was annoying having to deal with them all. They only had strength in number on their side as they hadn't even been equipped with weapons yet. He let out his own sigh hoping that Slayde was having some more luck.

* * *

Sonic destroyed another one of the robots that had been sent to him. It seemed like Robotnik had nothing but the smaller robots stocked in here, though they were still dangerous when equipped with guns so he was glad he had his Superform to rely on. He threw one of them against the wall, hoping that the bang would draw out more of the impressive robots to him. He sighed when none came. This was one hell of an uneventful attack, they may as well have just used a Chaos Blast to level the place and searched for the Emerald afterwards... But it was a bit late now. He glanced over to Terra.

"Hey, you seen any more interesting bots yet?"

He asked as he threw another bot against one of the walls making another bang.

"No I haven't." Terra replied as she followed suit and made another noise. "You'd think the racket we're making would attract them to us." She commented. Suddenly part of the tower lit up.

"Finally! Something interesting happens!" Sonic commented excitedly. Suddenly several egg emperor style robots surrounded him. "Seems like egghead is lacking on new designs!" He commented before he flew at one full speed, destroying it instantly. "This won't be much fun at all." He commented as Terra flung one of the robots towards him. He kicked it upwards into orbit.

"Damn, almost got you then." Terra commented sweetly. Sonic looked gob smacked.

"If you want to play it like that then we shall do." Sonic commented, dodging a blade being swung at him by one of the robots. He quickly grabbed the next blade swung at him and threw the entire robot at Terra, who had just grabbed the leg of one near her and done the same thing. The two robots collided in the middle destroying the both of them.

"You'll have to do better than that blur." She told him mischievously as she threw another robot at him, this time he knocked it into the robot next to him that was about to take another swing for him. He quickly back flipped and kicked a robot towards her. She pulled up a slab of rock to block the robot. "That's a bit more like it." She taunted.

* * *

Slayde was walking around like he was in any normal city and for some reason none of the robots were bothering him. It amused him that they were likely mistaking him for one of Robotnik's mechs so he had a smirk on his face. He heard some kind of bang behind him, but paid it no heed. He continued on until he heard two other bangs and turned around to look back.

"Wow they're making a lot of noise." He turned back to find a robot the size of an egg emperor looking at him, yet it seemed to be less for fighting and more for running the place as it lacked weapons, yet it seemed to be guarding this particular corridor.

"Who. Are. You?" It asked in it's robotic voice.

"I seem to be getting asked that a lot lately. I'm me." Slayde replied. The robot paused for a second, before speaking again.

"That is an invalid answer. Please give a valid answer or I will be forced to attack." It stated in it's monotone voice.

"This sentence is false." Slayde replied. The robot simply stared at him for a few seconds before a spark flew from somewhere in its circuitry and it collapsed on the floor. Slayde burst out laughing. "I never thought that'd actually work!" He commented before continuing down the corridor, laughing as he went. He came across a sealed door. "It seems it is time for my mad hacker skills." He commented before he blasted the door open with Chaos. "Yeah right." He said, the room seemed strangely cold as he entered and he could tell why. There was the ice blue Chaos Emerald right in front of him. He studied it for a few moments, trying to work out what it was doing here before grabbing it with his left hand, he could feel power surging up to his shoulder and he closed his eyes in reaction to the cold. He pulled it away from the stand it was on and the coldness vanished. He quickly realised it was becoming very hot in the room very fast. He was out the room like a bolt and just after he made it out the room exploded. He looked at the Emerald and grinned. "Guess I should go find Rose and Shadow." He commented as he put it in his quills, running back the way he had come from. He could still feel the heat levels creeping up and feared that first explosion might not have been the last.

He came across the large room that Shadow and Amy were in in mere minutes. Finding that they had been distracted by a few hundred robots. He smirked, grabbing the ice blue emerald before touching the ground. "_Chaos Ice Age._" He muttered, unleashing waves of ice upon the ground as all of the robots in front of him were frozen solid. "You guys seem to be getting lazy! I did your job for you!" Slayde commented, holding up the Emerald for the two to see.

"I see, I guess it was in the same place as the power room?" Shadow asked. Slayde nodded.

"Yes, the Doctor was using it to cool down some kind of experimental energy source. In case you hadn't noticed it's getting slowly warmer and I think that it's going to let off an explosion on a nuclear scale so I think we should probably get moving. The metal of the base will contain a lot of the blast force, but it'll still be a few miles of destruction." Slayde told him, for once Shadow actually looked slightly panicked, he quickly powered up to Superform, Slayde copied him immediately.

"Then we need to get moving." He commented as Slayde grabbed Amy. Shadow noticed this and commented before she could. "Rose no objections, you can't fly very fast yet."

"I wasn't going to say anything." She told him with a little too much force telling them both that she was. They both flew out of the room and into the streets that Shadow and Amy were sneaking through not long ago. The stopped as they came to a Superform Terra and Sonic.

"Base is going to blow. We need to leave." Slayde commented quickly before flying off. Terra quickly followed them but Sonic continued battling the mech he was fighting, causing Shadow to stay behind with him.

"Come on Sonic, we have to leave." Shadow told him. Sonic ignored him, finishing off the egg emperor like robot.

"I heard Slayde the first time. Come on then." He replied just as everything went quiet. The two of them looked towards the base. "Oh sh-" Sonic started as Shadow grabbed him and they both vanished in a flash of green, just for the area to be consumed by flames moments after.

* * *

Everyone quickly headed to where the green flash had sprung, not too far between the whole group and the smouldering remains of the base. Slayde, Amy and Terra were the first to arrive.

"If we're going to get this finished before the end of the year I'm going to need you to stop being so idiotic." Shadow commented harshly to Sonic. The two had begun to fall out and no one was there to witness why, even if Slayde could make a guess, but the whole group had arrived now.

"Least I can admit my feelings to people, rather than being a closed up prick." Sonic retorted back out of no where, causing Shadow to look enraged.

"I can't admit what isn't there rodent." Shadow snapped, Sonic gave him a look as if to say he was just going to tear off his head.

"I dare you to call me that again." Sonic announced in fury. Shadow smirked.

"Rodent." He simply said. Sonic went to jump at him but before he could do anything Terra grabbed him and put him in an arm lock. Sonic attempted to wriggle free.

"Let me go Terra, let me get him." He told her in fury. Terra just continued to hold him as Shadow smirked at him. Sonic powered up as he fur was coated in black, he threw Terra off and dived at Shadow. He was tackled by a yellow and blue Hedgehog.

"Dammit Sonic, calm down. He doesn't actually mean what he's saying." Slayde told him as he pinned him to the ground.

"Shadow, behave yourself." Was heard in the background from Amy.

"That Hedgehog infuriates me to the point of insanity." Shadow commented to her casually as if Sonic wasn't right next to him.

"That doesn't mean that you can insult him like that. What was all this about anyway?" Amy questioned Shadow. Shadow shrugged.

"Ask faker. I can't stand to be in a group with him any more." He commented before disappearing in a flash of green. Amy growled at the spot he had vanished from.

"I'm following him, he might be powerful but he shouldn't be on his own." Slayde commented before also vanishing in a flash of yellow.

"Now what happened Sonic?" Amy questioned him.

* * *

Slayde appeared in a cave, it was quite dark so he knew they must have been fairly deep in, he could however see just fine and noticed Shadow was in front of him, ignoring his presence.

"Are you okay Shadow?" Slayde questioned the dark hedgehog who was just sitting there contemplating something.

"I'm fine." He replied shortly. His old demeanour fully cloaking him. Slayde sat beside him with his legs crossed.

"I'm surprised you two have taken so long to fall out to be fair. Though at the same time I'm surprised. It doesn't really seem like the right time." Slayde commented. Shadow simply remained silent. "I can't help but feel like this might have some kind of outside influence... Like something to do with a certain pink Hedgehog?" Slayde mentioned to him. Shadow folded his arms.

"Not you too." He simply said. "My feelings towards Rose are no more than that of a friend and a mentor." Shadow retorted with steel in his voice, Slayde repressed a chuckle knowing it would simply anger Shadow.

"I feel like you're defending it a bit strongly for there to be nothing there." Slayde commented observantly. Shadow once again remained silent. "I'm not saying you do, but if you do like the girl maybe you should tell her. There could be something there if you want there to be." Slayde informed him. "I wouldn't want you to be alone when you didn't have to be. You're becoming like a brother to me." Slayde mentioned, Shadow's face very subtly softened in a way that most eyes wouldn't pick up, he opened his mouth to reply but as he did two things happened. The first was that Slayde suddenly vanished because it had become too dark for even him to see. The second was that he got knocked forward by something with great force. Shadow heard Slayde muttering in pain.

"Slayde can you see anything?" Shadow quickly asked as he got to his feet, looking around to no avail.

"No I can't, and its hard to hear what we're dealing with because of this echoey cave." Slayde replied before he let out a muffled yelp. "Yeah I'm getting my damn sword out." He announced.

"Wait! You might hit me with it." Shadow mentioned, Slayde sighed. Shadow suddenly felt massive claws slashing at his chest, he felt the blood trickle as he was knocked to the ground, utterly winded.

"Shadow?" Slayde shouted, alarmed. He powered himself into Superform quickly and the glow illuminated the cave enough for him to see perfectly, yet the creature nor Shadow were anywhere to be seen... "The hell is going on?" Slayde commented until he felt a similar slash from behind, everything went black again for a few seconds until he suddenly found himself somewhere completely different. He was in the middle of a grassy field in the dead of night. His disorientation faded fast when he realise Shadow was picking himself up in front of him. He quickly moved forwards, the wounds on his back stinging.

"Are you okay?" Shadow asked before he could also powering himself into Superform. "Keep your guard up, I doubt it's gone." He quickly added as Slayde nodded to his question.

"I presume you're okay? Did you get to see what attacked us?" Slayde asked quickly, clicking the fingers on both his hands, bringing both of his swords out.

"No, but I had my suspicions that this is the beast that's swallowed the Emerald." Shadow replied.

"Oh really? I thought it was just your standard run of the mill creature that could actually wound someone in Superform, because you know, there's loads of them." Slayde replied sarcastically. Shadow glared at him.

"Either way, we need to find our way out of this... Whatever this is." Shadow told him. Slayde nodded.

"Agreed." He commented as the both of them began to move forwards, heading towards a mountain range. After several minutes of walking the found themselves standing in front of a yellow Dog, she was just standing there, mumbling to herself incoherently. "Are you okay?" Asked Slayde, the woman turned to show eyes utterly empty and white.

"What the hell?" Shadow commented as she jumped for them, Shadow dodged the attack with ease. But the Dog just kept attacking. A blade sliced through her neck and she just vanished into a black mist. "Why did you do that? What if she was an innocent?"

"Even if it wasn't an apparition, she was clearly feral. Putting her out of her misery was the kindest thing to do if that was the case." Slayde told him, a coldness coming from him that Shadow had not really seen before. It reminded him of himself, which shook him slightly. The Hedgehog was just like him, but with less darkness weighing him down.

"I understand in that case. We need to keep moving." Shadow replied, his calm self realising that it was just the right thing to do in that situation. The two wordlessly continued towards the mountains. They both knew that if the creature liked the cave that it likely dwelled in a similar place in this dimension. They continued until the hit a fork in the road.

"Hmm, left or right?" Shadow commented. Slayde pointed right.

"It leads closer to the mountainside, and if we need to we can turn back, we're not that slow so we can turn back." Slayde commented, they both continued down the way until they came across a door in the mountainside. "Erm? Okay? Want to open it?" Slayde asked jokingly.

"I'm not actually sure if I do..." Shadow commented before stepping up to it. "I feel some strange energy coming from this door.

"It could be the Emerald." Slayde suggested. Shadow looked unconvinced however he opened the door slowly. The both suddenly found themselves in a room, a cave like room with torches around the room. There were two doors in front of them and two guards, one black wolf and one grey wolf. "Yeah, this dimension is officially messed up." He commented. Shadow walked up to a podium with writing on it and read aloud.

"You are in a chamber with two doors as the exits. One door will cause you to burn for eternity, the other door leads to freedom. There are two guards standing before you. One guard always lies and the other always tells the truth. You can ask only one question of these guards to decide which door to take. Choose your question wisely." Shadow announced.

"And that's just taken it to a whole new level of ridiculousness. Riddles? Really?" Slayde commented. Shadow rolled his eyes at the other Hedgehog.

"Stop fretting. I'm pretty sure I know the answer." Shadow replied.

"Yeah, pretty sure isn't the best in the word when one is going to burn for eternity..." Slayde commented casually with a hint of sarcasm.

"Okay, I am sure I know the answer." Shadow retorted. "I can't believe I'm reduced to playing the mind games of beasts." Shadow commented under his breath before approaching one of the guards. "If I was to ask the other guard whether the left or the right door lead to doom what would he say?" Shadow asked the grey wolf.

"He would say that the door on the right was the door of doom." The guard replied lazily as if he had grown bored of the world.

"Then the right door we take." Shadow commented without explaining himself to Slayde and opened the door. The two of them found themselves back outside again. Where the door was there was now a cave.

"Are we in a game or something?" Slayde commented half jokingly, Shadow looked at him with a look of realisation.

"What if it's just our minds stuck in this dimension, and the creature is feasting on our bodies right now?" Shadow commented. Slayde looked at him startled and then realised he felt like something was missing from him. If his mind was stuck here and his body was alone then that was a terrible thing.

"If that's the case we need to wake up now." Slayde commented. "But how?" He questioned Shadow. The Hedgehog sighed.

"You're not gonna like this... We have to die." Shadow commented. "If we die in this dimension then our minds will return to our bodies... However, if I'm wrong and we are actually here physically... Then we will truly die." Shadow told him. Slayde sighed.

"Well that's a tad shit." He joked, Shadow grinned despite himself. "I guess I'll do it then." He told him.

"What?" Shadow asked, taken aback. He was surprised Slayde had simply volunteered so easily.

"Well two reasons, you're more important to the group than I, and also I can leave one of my swords in this dimension and summon it back to me if I survive, that way you'll know to follow." Slayde told him. "Beside that I need to get out as fast as possible. If I don't summon the swords and you find a way out... Then look in my backpack, you'll know what it is when you see it." Slayde told him before he dropped his katana.

"You are just as important to the group." Shadow calmly told Slayde as he plunged his own blade into his chest, also vanishing in a black mist. Shadow sighed, looking at the blade waiting for it to vanish. A few seconds later it did... Now Shadow had the problem of working out just how he was going to get himself out of here...

* * *

"Ah finally." Slayde commented as Shadow stirred. "I was starting to think that you wasn't coming." Slayde joked. Shadow looked at him icily.

"In case you didn't realise... I didn't have anything to quickly escape with." Shadow told him icily before looking around, half the cave seemed to have collapsed while he was out and the creature was nothing more than a pile of bones and blood. "What happened while I wasn't here?" He asked slightly suspiciously. Slayde held out the white Emerald.

"Does it matter, we got this! That makes 5!" Slayde commented casually. Shadow gave him a look.

"In the time we were out our bodies should have been devoured. Either the time in that dimension was very slow, which is entirely possible, or this happened before even you woke up." Shadow commented.

"Could be a bit of both I guess." Slayde replied, hiding the white Emerald in his quills. Shadow sighed.

"Who are... No, I won't pry because I know you won't tell me. But just so you know, you can tell me. I won't judge you. I've done many things in my past so for me to pass judgement on another is a bit hypocritical." Shadow told him calmly. "Now, shall we head back? Nothing like a life threatening situation to quell the anger in someone." He finished as he went to teleport.

"Wait, what started the argument?" Slayde asked quickly before Shadow managed to zap himself away.

"Well I said that his foolishness at wanting to finish off that last bot could have got someone hurt, and he said that by someone I meant Rose... So I pointed out that I meant anyone, you or even his precious Terra. Then he told me not to bring her into it and I told him not to bring up Rose then. Then I presume you heard the rest." Shadow told him before he vanished in a flash of green. Slayde simply smirked as he disappeared in a flash of yellow-white.

They both appeared before the group simultaneously. Sonic stepped forward.

"Sorry for being how I was Shadow." He told him, Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"You told them what happened?" He asked doubtfully.

"I told Terra, and she... Well yeah, I'm apologising right? So sorry." Sonic told him, the ebony and crimson Hedgehog smirked.

"We found an Emerald while we were gone." Shadow told the group to change the subject and Slayde held it out. He handed it to Sonic.

"Here Terra, take this light blue one." Slayde commented as he threw it over to her. She caught it before pulling out the dark blue one. "Oh yeah, I forgot you already had one. Could you give one to Rose in that case?" He asked politely. Terra shrugged.

"Sure." She replied as she handed the dark blue one to Amy. "I prefer the light blue one anyway." She commented casually. Amy smiled as she took the Emerald. Glad that she had been entrusted with one.

"So now we have the yellow, the green, the dark and light blue, and the white. Just two to go." Slayde commented to the group. Shadow turned to the sunset.

"Seems me and Slayde were gone a while. Let's set up camp for tonight." Shadow told them all. No one complained. It had been a long day and there was another long day ahead of them tomorrow.

* * *

So... This update feels to me like it's a little bit below my other chapters... But that might just be me getting back into the swing of things. Much thanks to those who reviewed! Hope old and new readers decide to do the same this time round! ;)


	15. 14 More Bases, More Steps

_More bases, more steps_

"Everyone geared up and ready?" Slayde asked as he put on his left glove, Rage gave him a funny look but didn't comment. "We need to head out soon."

"Slayde, I've packed the tent. You store it in yours." Shadow commented as he threw a pack at Slayde, Slayde clicked his fingers and it vanished as it was coming towards him. "Me and Rose are ready. I noticed that Rage and the kids were ready also. Sonic's out his tent so I assume that Terra's getting ready."

"So what's on the hit list today? I haven't much looked at the locations." Slayde asked Shadow while he examined the Yellow Emerald.

"There's one some five miles to the west, and two others within two miles of each other north west of that. Tails believes some Chaos distortion to be coming from one of the three bases, but they're too close to determine which one. These are actually the last three on this large landmass then we'll have to travel to another to continue. Though because we've already got five Emeralds and the last one is likely at the Doctors main base, that should probably be where we should head. The sooner we get them all the better." Shadow told him, Slayde nodded pulling on his right glove. "To be fair we've been quite lucky with the Emeralds. Although a lot of that is down to the fact that this piece of land is the biggest piece on new Mobius. Multiple continents attached."

"Then we could split up to take down multiple bases at once." Slayde commented just as the light of the sun truly shone over the horizon. "It's amazing how much of a difference we've had. Hard to believe it's May, been over four months since we got out of that room." He commented as he looked over towards the clouds in the South. Hanging like a bad smell over the remaining bases.

"It's already the 6th of May. Anyway, the problem with splitting up means that someone has to stay behind and looked after the kids." Shadow commented as he indicated Prosha and Noir.

"The 6th already?" Slayde asked, smiling as if remembering something he had long forgotten. He shook it off. "I doubt that there's anything strong enough around here to be able to take down Alpha and Ebony. I think that they should be able to defend the others just fine. Not to mention that ability of Noir's." Slayde replied. "That way Rage can still be a part of the assault, as he is stronger than he leads us to believe."

"I agree, if we're going to be splitting up and doing all three at once we will need all hands on deck." Shadow responded as he moved to face the rest of the group, busy getting ready to move. "But deciding who's going with who will be a pain."

"Sending Sonic and Terra together would be wise, they'll be worrying about each other otherwise." Slayde commented. "Then if you and Rose go together and me and Rage go together it shouldn't be a problem." Slayde suggested. "Everyone else can make their way to one of the bases and we can all meet up there after we're done."

"Sounds like a plan. We'll met at the middle base, the one me and Rose will be going to. You can go to the one of the left Slayde and Sonic and Terra can go to the base on the right." Shadow concluded. Slayde looked over to Rage.

"You ready to leave?" He questioned. Rage nodded mutely and the two ran off towards the base that Shadow had pointed out to them. Shadow sat on the ground. Allowing himself a few minutes while everyone prepared. He heard Terra approaching from behind him and tried to will her to go away.

"Shadow? Which base do you think that the Emerald is in?" She asked him. Shadow took a deep breath due to his peace being disturbed.

"I'm pretty sure it's in the middle one." He replied despite the fact that it was pretty obvious he thought this otherwise he wouldn't be going there himself.

"Okay, well just don't hog all the fun to yourself." She told him, then started laughing. "Haha, hog." She said before looking at Shadow's dead serious face and feeling a bit awkward. "I guess we'll be off then." Terra stated quickly before leaving rapidly. Sonic chuckled at her.

"Laters Shadow." Sonic mentioned before he left. Shadow watched him run after Terra for a few moments before turning around and looking at Amy who was standing right behind him waiting.

"Are you ready Rose?" Shadow asked her quietly, almost softly, in an uncharacteristic way. Amy nodded, not quite sure what had brought on Shadow's strange mood. "Then let us go." He told her holding his hand out. Amy took it and the both disappeared in a flash of green, reappearing in the midst of the base. It was already in an uproar despite the fact that the others had only just arrived at the other bases, it seemed they had already called for support. This surprised Shadow, they were normally so slow on the uptake.

"Wow, this a bit different to how it normally is." Amy commented. Out of the midst of all the typical robots came a robot that was semi recognisable, yet not at the same time. It looked somewhat like the E series robot Omega, however there were differences. Most notably the fact that the symbol was of a different language other than Greek.

"Rose, get back. This isn't going to be an easy one." Shadow told her as he powered up to Superform, floating upwards slightly. The robot also floated upwards. "Looks like you'll actually be a challenge." He commented before flying at the robot full speed. To his surprised the robot managed to take the attack full on before throwing him backwards and initiating an attack of its own, swiping claw like hands at him. Shadow barely dodged them before kicking the hands away and twirling to deliver a kick to the robot, however the robot managed to dodge the hit. Shadow looked at it in surprise. "Definitely not an easy one." Shadow glanced down to see Amy fighting with all the smaller robots, she had amounted quite a pile of robots, and was close to finishing them off.

His thoughts were quickly interrupted as pain seared though his arm. He quickly jumped back, arm with a shallow cut on it. Shadow growled at the robot and was about to dive at it when a yellow bolt of energy suddenly tore itself through one of the arms of the robot he was fighting. He glanced down again to see Amy standing in the midst of rubble, poised as if she had just thrown a Chaos Spear. He looked at the robot, it was dysfunction slightly now. He quickly made his move tearing the robots head off while it was disorientated and throwing it against the ground with all the might of a super leaving a small dent. He descended to Amy quickly.

"Rose, you shouldn't have done that. What if you had hit me?" Shadow scolded. Amy look at him with irritation.

"But I didn't, I helped you take him down faster. Now can we move on to what we need to do?" Amy asked him bluntly. Shadow stared at her for a few seconds before sighing, did this girl have no fear?

"You are impossible." Shadow commented before he started walking forwards. "I guess that we need to find this Emerald then?" He asked rhetorically as the two of them began their search of the base. Amy paused for a moment wondering how the others were doing before following Shadow.

* * *

Slayde and Rage were in the middle of a fight, each with several robots based on the egg emperor attacking them. There were more here than either of them had seen total before this.

"Well I certainly wasn't expecting quite this much resistance." Slayde commented as he knocked down yet another egg emperor style robot. It seemed like there was no end to them, this was definitely a base dedicated to creating this cursed things.

"When I found out I wasn't going with Shadow I thought that I'd get one of the easy bases, with nothing in it but easy mechs so I could just laze around when you destroyed them all. Seems like my life just isn't that easy." Rage commented half jokingly.

"Any chance you know about some kind of self destruct switch?" Slayde asked Rage with a hopeful look on his face as he smashed one robot into another.

"Nope, sorry to disappoint." Rage replied while smirking, tearing out one of their power cores with his bare hands. "Either way, we need to find a way to stop this torrent of enemies." He finished as he threw the power core with enough force that it smashed into one of the robots in front of his and created a tiny explosion just big enough to destroy enough of the robot to make it malfunction.

"Haha, nice take down." Slayde commented as he picked up one of the shields that had been dropped nearby him and threw it through three of them, destroying them all instantly.

"Not bad yourself." Rage commented as he ran through the gap that Slayde attack had just made through a door. Slayde quickly followed.

"Okay, we're inside. Now where?" Slayde commented, throwing a few Chaos Spears through the door they had just come through causing several explosions behind them.

"This way." Rage stated hurriedly as he ran down one of the corridors, ploughing through some of the lesser mechs that had appeared inside with ease. Within a few minutes they had collectively destroyed about 100 of the lesser mechs and the larger ones were left quite far behind. "This here should be the entrance to the power room." He commented as he pried the door open with his hands. In front of them was a nuclear reactor big enough to have powered up the entire base.

"Well that would explain why the door was so thick." Slayde commented casually as if he'd seen thousands of these already. "We need to shut this down properly if we don't want to risk an explosion again. Except this time the base will be full of radiation... Thankfully the blast will be contained by the base since the explosions wouldn't be that big."

"With any luck the base would contain the radiation too... Still, I'm amazed Robotnik keeps dangerous power sources like this around him if I'm honest." Rage commented as he examined the console. "You know these things take a long time to shut down right?" Rage told him as he flipped a couple of switches causing some movement. "And even then the fuel rods will take months to cool down."

"Oh wow. Okay, well just get it to a shut down state and hope that the process is automated. I'll presume the Doctor allowed for the eventuality that he might not use this power source anymore." Slayde commented as one of the larger robots walked past the door. "Looks like I'm going to have to go and be a distraction." He commented as he ran outside the door. Rage could hear noise coming from outside as he pressed more buttons.

"I have no idea what I'm doing." He said aloud to himself as he worked. "Pretty sure dunking the control rods in there is the right thing to do." He muttered to himself as he pressed yet more buttons. "Okay, that should shut down the main reactions, just have to hope the cooling has back up power." He told himself as he turned to the turmoil at the door.

"I could do with a bit of help." Slayde told him as he got hit by a robot that even Rage hadn't seen before. He flew backwards into the reactor, creating a huge dent. "For fucks sake! Can something go right for once!" Slayde shouted as he moved forwards away from the reactor quickly.

"We really need to get out of here." Rage commented as he dodged this robots swipe. Slayde charged directly into it, knocking it into the wall.

"Oh really? I thought I'd have myself a nice radiation bath." Slayde commented sarcastically as alarms started going off stating the reactor was approaching critical temperature. Rage glanced back to the reactor and noticed cracks on the outer shell and that the coolant liquid was leaking all over the floor.

"Yeah, I think that's already started." Rage commented before back flipping to dodge the robot. He quickly realised he was stood right in front of the reactor as he noticed the robot was mere centimetres away from him about to plough him directly into it. Luckily Slayde dragged him out the way just in time. That however did not stop the robot from smashing head first into the reactor. Rage stood there staring for a minute before Slayde grabbed his arm and dragged him out the room a bulkhead doors closed the room down the computer announcing a catastrophic failure and that the reactor would soon reach meltdown. "Okay, sorry. I'm coming." Rage commented as the two of them started running down the corridor. Despite the fact the base was doomed to be flooded with radiation the robots insisted on getting in their way still.

"I guess the tin cans don't need to worry about getting irradiated to death." Slayde commented as he smashed one through the door they needed to head out of.

"I suppose not." Rage commented back. "Kinda wish I had that armour on that the Doctor had placed on me now." Rage joked as he ran through the door with Slayde in toe.

"The tracker too?" Slayde commented teasingly as he nimbly dodged sever missiles that had been sent his way, throwing one of them back to the sender causing the bot to explode in a glorious explosion.

"Well, God. I'd have to think about that. Erm... No. I think I'd rather keep the tracker away from me thanks." Rage replied giving Slayde a glare. Slayde chuckled and was just about to say something when he got tackled by a now familiar robot. "Dammit! Slayde!" Rage shouted as he tried to make his way over to the other Hedgehog. But his way was blocked by the several large robots that had appeared when they got back outside. He made quick work of two of them and dodged through to find Slayde fighting the new robot, it was obvious that he didn't have the upper hand.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this during this attack!" Slayde shouted as he turned super and flung the robot back. He was about to give chase when he stumbled, clutching his head. The power vanished from him as he kneeled, seeming to just evaporate into the air.

"Slayde?!" Rage called as he was taken down by one of the robots he had neglected to destroy. He felt the weight on him and started to gather some power until he realised the weight was no longer on him. Several explosions occurred at once and Rage push himself up to see Slayde in dark Superform, his eyes red and the scar over his eye faintly shimmering with light energy rather than the darkness it usually made him feel when Slayde was super. He was holding the head of the robot in one hand and the body in another. He looked over to Rage as he rolled himself into a sitting position. He started walking to him as he threw the pieces of robot to either side of him. Before he spoke in a voice that was his own, yet slightly deeper.

"Ah, Rage. I'm glad that I can finally-." He started before clutching his had again, hands over his face. His dark Superform vanishing just as the normal one had done earlier. He moved his hands away from his face, scar back to normal and eyes back to blue.

"I seem to be losing control." He stated to no one but himself as he looked into the sky, taking in a deep breath.

"Losing control of what?" Rage asked as he stood. Slayde looked over to him.

"Sorry Rage, I didn't see you there." Slayde stated as he glanced back to the base. "We need to move, who knows how much radiation could be leaking out of this place shortly." Slayde told him briefly as he went to leave, Rage stood in his way.

"You know who I am, unlike the others, so you know that you can trust me to know, even if it's only based on mutual secrets rather than trust." Rage told him. Slayde shook his head in frustration.

"Haven't you realised yet Rage? _I don't know._ I have no idea who I am. I have small inklings and nothing more. I don't refuse to tell you who I am out of principal, but because I'm not entirely sure myself. All I know is that I was also aboard that ARK with Shadow at some point. But as a researcher? As an experiment? I have no idea. Please stop asking, it's as annoying for me as it is for you. Probably even more so." Slayde finished his rant abruptly as he ran off, leaving Rage simply gawping at his dust trail.

"For some reason I just don't believe you Hedgehog. But I shall leave it for today." Rage commented almost darkly to himself before running after the Hedgehog.

* * *

Terra flung one of the mechs into the wall, slowly walking down the corridor while the black Chaos clung to her fur.

"I can't believe this." She announced angrily as she dispatched about ten more robots in a single go with an arced bolt of Chaos. "All there is here is fodder. We've been at this for ten minutes and nothing decent has come to attack us." She announced as she used the nearest robot as a bowling ball and took down several others in front of her.

"You're too focused on fighting sometimes, at least we get to relax." Sonic replied as he opened the next door to check what was inside. "We'll be able to go to Shadow's base and look for the Emerald there if we can finish this one fast enough." He pointed out. Suddenly Terra's eyes lit up.

"I didn't think of it that way!" She said somewhat excitedly. "_Chaos Arc!_" She announced as two more arc like bolts cut several of the robots in half. She grabbed Sonic's hand, teleporting him on top of the base almost dead central.

"I thought we said that we wasn't going to do this again because it tired us out far too much?" Sonic questioned her, he already knew what she was going to suggest. She shrugged.

"This is gonna get us finished a whole lot faster. Anyway, we'll make it weaker this time, we only need to destroy the base itself, not the entire area around the base too." She told him as she started powering up, ready for the attack. Sonic rolled his eyes and followed suit, taking her hands and combining the energy in the middle.

"Ready?" He asked after a couple of minutes had passed. She nodded mutely. The both of them took a deep breath.

"_Chaos Blast!_" They shouted in unison. The whole base was evaporated in second, only the structures made of Chaosanium remained. The two of them grinned at each other a little breathlessly.

"Let's go then." Terra said as she zoomed off to the other base. Sonic couldn't help but roll his eyes and followed a few seconds later. He caught up to her in no time because despite the fact she was stronger than him he was still faster. A thought crept into his mind because of Terra and her constant games so he shouted over to her as they flew next to each other.

"Hurry up slow poke!" And then zoomed off leaving her in his trail. He arrived at the other base in mere seconds and stood on the wall surrounding it, grinning and waiting. He was slightly out of breath because of the move they'd done but it'd be worth it. A few seconds later he could see a black dot, another couple of seconds and a black Echidna was floating next to him.

"You're so funny." She told him sarcastically. Sonic just grinned at her for a second.

"I always thought so." He replied with a smirk. She rolled her eyes at him before jumping down Sonic followed her with his smirk still on his face. The two of them paused for a moment, breathing still heavier than what they would have liked for it to be. Sonic noticed a robot not too far away that looked vaguely familiar. "I think that's Omega." He said loudly to Terra, she looked over to the robot in question as it started flying towards them, the differences now becoming apparent. "Okay maybe not." He stated as the thing charged at Terra, she barely dodged it due to her tired state.

"I knew it'd be more fun here." She stated to Sonic and she jumped for the robot, but it was faster and stronger than she expected and it managed to block her hit. She noticed the rune on its shoulder. And jumped backwards. "Hey Sonic, I think that's Anglo-Saxon runes. This thing is pretty strong."

"It looks like a continuation of the E-series. Egghead used Greek letters last time." Sonic replied while watching the battle. "Need some help?" He asked teasingly as she barely dodged another of its attacks.

"No I've got it!" Terra told him just as a hit connected to her and knocked her through on of the walls.

"Terra!" Sonic shouted in rage. His light blue eyes suddenly vanished. He was back to the old dark Sonic.

He charged at the robot as if he hadn't been out of breath just moments before, smashing it and sending it flying backwards. He raced faster than it and kicked it into the ground before jumping on it and smashing it repeatedly with his fists until it was nothing but scrap metal. Then he continued hitting it, and hitting it, until blood seeped out of his knuckles and stated to soak his gloves. The sight of his own blood finally made him stop as he panted before realising he had something more important to think about. As his thoughts turned to Terra his eyes returned to their light blue state as he quickly flew back again to see if Terra was alright. She has just pulled herself out of the wall, but she was no longer in her Superform, making it seem like she had probably lost consciousness.

"Are you okay?" He asked her in concern as he helped her up and pulled her into a hug. A few bruises evident but other than that she seemed fine.

"Yeah I'm fine blur. That was an impressive display of power there, was it all for me?" She asked him. He blushed.

"Yeah, I kinda lost it there." Sonic mumbled to her. She just smiled at him.

"You're a mystery sometimes. It makes me wonder if you've got even more hidden potential in that body of yours." Terra told him calmly. Sonic simply shrugged. "We should go and find Shadow and Amy." She suggested, the two of the walked towards the centre of the base, holding hands as they went.

* * *

Shadow and Amy had both been searching for the Emerald but to no luck, and now two more of these new robots had appeared in front of them.

"Looks like you're going to have to join in with this one Rose." Shadow commented as he jumped for the one on the left, powering up again. Amy almost jumped for joy at the opportunity to fight and immediately threw a Chaos Spear at the robot before charging. The robot dodged the Chaos spear, but in doing so Amy managed to smash it with her hammer. Unfortunately it didn't do too much damage and the robot managed to tear the hammer out of her hand. Dammit. She muttered, taking a quick glance to Shadow. Shadow was dodging a blade that this one had, that being the reason he chose it so Amy wouldn't have to deal with more than she could handle, he managed to catch the blade between his hands and wrenched it out of the robots grip. Throwing it behind him. He spun into a spin dash and smashed into the robot, pushing it backwards and making it fly a few meters before glancing over to Amy.

"Shadow!" Amy shouted as she dodged a swipe intended for her face. She had a very slightly yellowish aura around her just like Slayde had when he was fighting Sonic back in Aragot. Shadow was forced to dodge an attack from the robot he was battling.

"What is it Rose?" He asked as he kicked the robot in the chest knocking it back again. Amy had her hammer out again and was relentlessly trying to smash the robot with it.

"If we get them directly in between us and spin dash them into each other we might be able to take them both down." She suggested, slightly out of breath from her constant pounding of the hammer. Shadow did a spectacular aerobatic move to dodge another attack of the robots and put the two robots directly in between Amy and himself in one go.

"Good idea Rose! Ready?" Shadow asked, back flipping to dodge the robot without ruining the direct line between him the robots and Amy. Amy's hammer vanished and she started to spin dash first. Her spin cloaked in a yellow energy as she smashed into the robot and started pushing it towards the other. Shadow quickly followed suit and the two robots quickly met in the middle, smashing backs into one another as the two hedgehogs started burrowing through the metal casing that protected their circuitry. Within seconds the two Hedgehogs met in the middle and bounced off each other. Both landing on their feet and looking over to the robots. They were both sparking and moving incredibly slowly, but still somehow moving, Shadow looked to Amy and smirked as she clicked her fingers for her hammer. The two of them changed at the robots, Shadow letting loose a flying kick and Amy smashed the robot with all her might, feeling the vibrations through her arms from the force of the impact. The two robots smashed into each other, leaving nothing more than scrap metal. "Well done Rose." Shadow commented as he looked at her with a hint of pride on his face.

"Back to the search then?" Amy asked with a smile. Shadow nodded, however just as the two of them were about to move Terra appeared in front of them, looking slightly beaten up along with Sonic who seemed quite worn out too.

"What are you two doing here?" Shadow asked in surprise, yet he could guess at what the answer was going to be.

"We finished up our base and thought we'd come here. We met up with something new, a successor to the E series robots and it managed to gain the upper hand on Terra before I helped her kick its ass." Sonic told him.

"I suspected as much from the faint feeling of power coming from the bases direction. Did you blow it up again?" Shadow questioned them. They both grinned and he knew his answer. "Well we haven't found the Emerald yet, so if you want to help be my guest, though there seems to be more of those robots around... Me and Rose have dealt with three already." Shadow told the two of them as he went to turn, just to be knocked off his feet by something hard and metallic. He quickly stood up and turned around, seeing a robot extremely similar to the ones they had all fought previously. Except this one had an obvious red glow coming from its chest.

"I think we've found the Emerald." Sonic commented in his old school cocky manner. Shadow frown at it.

"Rose, hang back and let us deal with this one." Shadow told her calmly deciding quickly that it was probably wise that she stay out of it because of the fact that she didn't have her Superform yet. Surprisingly she didn't object, likely thinking the same thing. All three of them jumped the robot at once, and all of them found their attacks blocked or deflected. Shadow jumped back as the other two continued attacking and threw a Chaos Spear at it. It just deflected off the robot like it was nothing.

"Okay, this isn't just a standard robot." Sonic commented as he and Terra backed off. The robot would likely have smirked if it could. Luckily it had no mouth.

"We'll just have to keep attacking until we can find an opening if it can deflect Chaos moves." Terra told the group. The three of them redoubled their attack. A shout was heard not too far off from a familiar voice.

"Hey guys, we caused a nuclear meltdown." Slayde informed everyone as soon as the two of them got close enough to the group for all to hear.

"Yeah, I think we're a little busy to hear about what you've broken at the moment." Shadow retorted coolly as the three of them continued their assault, trying to find a weak point.

"You seem to be having a lot of fun so we probably shouldn't join in. Unless of course you want us to?" Slayde asked jokingly.

"This isn't the time for sarcasm hedgehog." Shadow snapped back as he got knocked backwards into Rage who stopped him flying any further.

"Damn, this thing is tough." Slayde stated before he looked at Rage and nodded in some unspoken agreement. "Shadow, can you distract it?" Slayde asked. Shadow immediately dived head first at the seemingly dentless robot, forcing it to face him as he unleashed a flurry of moves. Quickly Rage grabbed one arm and Slayde grabbed the other. With a horrible sound of metal tearing apart they pulled both the arms off and dropped them to the floor.

"Yeah! Got cha!" Rage shouted as both the robots arms sparked on the floor. The robot however seemed utterly unbothered and tendrils of wire shot out to both of the arms, picking both of the pieces of metal back up.

"What the heck?" Sonic asked mirroring everyone else's thoughts. As soon as the robot put itself back together, which took less than a second, it fired two missile like things out of each of its arms towards Terra and Sonic. The both of them went to dodge them, but they suddenly shot nets out and sealed themselves somehow, leaving the both of them in bundles on the floor.

"Dammit this thing can regenerate!" Slayde shouted as Shadow back flipped to move out of the way of the robot, but it had some kind of strange ability to manipulate its limbs now that it was using the emeralds power to the full. It managed to get him in a vice grip and despite his Superform still being active it was crushing him slowly. Shadow started choking as Slayde and Rage flung themselves at the robot, but to no avail as the robot was still managing to defend from their attacks. "Quick guys! We need to get Shadow out!" Slayde shouted to Terra and Sonic as they tried to wrestle with the metal nets that had been shot at them, but to no avail.

"I think these are made of Chaosanium!" Terra shouted back as she continued to struggle. Slayde looked behind the robot as he noticed movement, fast movement.

"Get your damn hands off him!" Amy cried as she charged at the robot full speed, hammer aloft. For a split second before the strike, her fur turned a creamy yellow-white and the aura extended through her hammer as she smashed it over the head, the power of the hit successfully causing the robot to malfunction slightly, her fur returned to normal before she had even pulled the hammer back out of the robot. Shadow quickly moved back, looking at Amy in awe. "Ha! Take that you damn robot!" She cried as she pulled the Emerald from out of its mainframe preventing it from repairing itself again. Everyone looked at her with surprise as the nets just seemed to fall away from Terra and Sonic. Before anyone could say anything or Amy noticed their expressions however, parts of the base suddenly started collapsing as if in response to their victory. Before they knew it almost the whole of the base above ground level had collapsed into nothingness.

"I swear that he's put all the bases on self destruct so they can't fall into enemy hands." Slayde commented offhandedly. Though Shadow had to agree... It just seemed to convenient that the bases never seemed to survive an encounter with them.

"It's getting dark. We'll set up camp in the middle where there were no buildings." Shadow commented as he ran towards where the ones that didn't fight would be coming from to tell them.

* * *

The dark took over as Rage threw some wood on the newly kindled fire, just Rage, Shadow and Slayde were at the fire. The others were either putting up tents or looking for more wood.

"The speed of Rose's progress is beginning to frighten me Shadow. She went super for a split second then. I don't think she even realised it herself." Slayde commented to Shadow. Shadow looked bothered also.

"It is startling. She's progressing far faster than she should be. My only thoughts are that the boosts that me and Sonic received are also effecting her... But her boost is more gradual than ours was." Shadow responded. Slayde looked unconvinced.

"That is a possibility. But if it's not that than she might still have that to come... And if that's then she'll probably be the strongest in the group in the next year or two." Slayde replied to him. The two of them just sat silently for a while, Rage looking at the two of them to see if they were going to continue their discussion. Since neither of them seemed like they were going to continue the conversation Rage spoke up.

"So what now?" He asked calmly as he got some more wood from the pile he had collected together. "We've finished getting rid of all the bases on this continent. This super continent. Do you think we should return to Aragot for the time being? Or should we just go to the next continent and continue?" He questioned what little of the group that was there. Still only Shadow and Slayde were sitting nearby him, the both of them trying to work out the same thing, even if they were both more preoccupied with Amy. Everyone else was busy setting up the tents.

"I'm going to go and check out the inside of the base and see if I can find something that may help us decide on what we should do next." Slayde told the others decisively. "I'll be back in about two to three hours. Just get some rest and try to think about what you want to do next." He suggested as he walked to a small hole in the rubble nearby. "Laters." He told them before they could say anything against it.

"That damn Hedgehog better not get lost." Shadow commented. Amy came up to the remaining two.

"Where's Slayde?" She asked. Rage grinned at Shadow from behind with a look that said 'Good luck explaining this one.'

* * *

Next update 20th of March (Next Sunday)

I may however bring it forward a day for each review I get ;)

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! ^.^


	16. 15 The Emerald is Gone

_The Emerald is Gone!_

The group had properly set up camp within the almost completely destroyed base that they had found the Emerald in and it was now dark. Slayde had been missing for a couple of hours now and no one really knew what to do about it.

"Someone should go to find him." Amy finally stated as they all sat round the polluted green-yellow fire. Ebony looked up at her but didn't say a word, Rage continued to stare into the slightly green fire next to her. Prosha, Noir, Alpha and Ebony were off in the distance attempting to find wood that was burnable without letting off deathly fumes and Sonic and Terra were in their tent. Again. Shadow was sitting right next to Amy, likewise watching the fire.

"We can't let someone go in. If that person gets lost then we may well end up having to wait even longer than before. Anyway, he took an Emerald in with him. It may well be impossible to use Chaos Control to teleport through the metal that the Doctor built the base with, but he isn't defenceless either. Just leave him be Rose." Shadow stated rather calmly, but there was a slight underlay of concern in his tone. It was so small that no one noticed except Amy, as she had spent the most time with him.

"Well I'm not the only one worried about him." Amy stated bluntly, once again looking into the fire. Shadow looked across to Rage. Rage seemed unusually calm on the outside. Yet Shadow could see a raging battle going on behind his eyes. He was sure that Rage was deciding whether or not he should go down there. If Shadow was truthful he was the only one that could be trusted not to get lost down there, as he was in Robotnik's service before and all the bases so far had been laid out to follow one of the three plans. They sat in silence for about half an hour more until Rage suddenly jumped up.

"I'm going in." He stated fiercely, as if daring Shadow to argue with him. But on the contrary Shadow suddenly picked something up and threw it at Rage. Rage caught it in the blink of an eye and looked at it. It was the green Chaos Emerald.

"That's my favourite, so you best not lose it." Shadow stated. Eyes not looking up from the fire. Rage stood there, eyes wide in shock for a few minutes until he smirked and ran off to the open hole that was the base doors. The base was exactly like all the others to Rage, so he knew the whole thing like the back of his hand. Unfortunately, that also meant that he knew that the whole base was big, he knew that the top area, which was completely obliterated as it was made of mundane materials like steel, was actually a mere ten percent of the bases actual size, and when including the entire thing it was more a like a small city, a large city if you didn't include Aragot in your estimations. As such there was all sorts in there. Including multiple corrupted who had managed to get past defences and lived inside some of the more abandoned and disused tunnels themselves. Rage had absolutely no idea where Slayde was. He only had the clue of the fact that he was attempting to find out information that they could use against Robotnik. Most stuff was down, so it was unlikely that the main room would be able to provide him with any information.

"Okay... Where to start?" Rage muttered to himself as he looked round. Everything looked exactly the same down here, Robotnik didn't seem to know the meaning of 'decoration' so Rage was lucky he knew his way round the base already... But Slayde didn't. The obvious place to look would probably be the main computer room. So Rage set off, navigating through the endless corridors like he was reading a map. After just a few minutes he made it to the main computer room. The whole place was completely pitch black as the sun could not penetrate to this dark dank area. Although he couldn't see anything, something in here felt very strange. It took him a few seconds to put his finger on it. The place only had one entrance in and out, which meant that there was no way a breeze could be generated, and yet there was a breeze, albeit a weak one, but a breeze none the less. He had to get some light, but there was no longer any power to this base. They had completely cut it off prior to infiltrating the main part. He would just have to use his own resources. "Chaos Flare." He mumbled to himself, creating a small amount of light in his palm for him to see. What he noticed shocked him. There was a small hole in the ground where Robotnik's main seat or 'Throne' was that wasn't in any of the original plans. Was this a coincidence or was it intentional? Rage remembered a small undug area, that went from the middle of the base down miles until it hit the bottom of the base, that The Doctor claimed was because the base needed enough support. Rage leaned over the gap and brightened the light as much as he could, he couldn't see the bottom, so it went very very deep. Perhaps to the underneath of the base, which would indeed make it more than a few miles long. Which would be a long fall in the dark. Rage shook his head, even if he did want to go down there to find out what had been hidden from him he shouldn't, he needed to find Slayde. He backed away and sighed before something caught his eye. A small tuft a black fur. Considering the fact The Doctor only kept none biological company this was odd to say the least. Rage had to make a decision. The fur likely belonged to Slayde, though it would have been unlikely Slayde would ever had found this place. Which meant either he could just continue on his way, risking leaving the only possible clue that he had found thus far behind, _or_ had to think the fur _was_ indeed Slayde's and follow him down...

He sure did want to know what was down there...

Without another though he found himself falling down the deep narrow tunnel of dark, occasionally scraping his extremities as he fell. He must have been falling for ages, for when he finally hit the ground, and did he hit it. He went with a rather loud and painful bang, he didn't expect the floor, so his legs didn't absorb the shock quite right. He fell down, unable to put any weight on his legs because they were dead with numbness. The Mobian body may well have been designed far more hardier than a humans, but that fall must have been over 3 miles, and unlike in Aragot, he couldn't see the ground, so he couldn't slow himself down with Chaos or brace his body for the impact. Just being able to brace and land properly would have been enough for just a numbing tingle in his feet. He groaned and pushed himself up after a minute or two. He looked round, this far down there may be another power source, so defences could be online and searching for intruders. From the place he had fell, which now had a small impression of Rage's feet, there was only one corridor. He hobbled down it as fast as he could with his numb legs and soon met a large door. The small green light above it was switched on. Rage finally snuffed his Chaos Flare. The light from the door was only just enough to see with, a few seconds later however he could see as perfectly as he could with the Flare. He glanced to the side where there was a button next to a hand scanner. The green light meant it was unlocked, so Rage simply hit the button and the door opened. His eyes widened. There was a room that simply didn't seem to end down here. Why did no one ever notice?

The place was badly lit, even for his eyes. Yet there seemed to be just about everything here, everything electronical, ever built, was in this one room. And further in the distance there was what sounded to be animals, the smell was traced in his nose. They were all none carnivorous animals, but there was few he didn't recognise, which seemed almost reptile. After several minutes of wandering Rage was starting to get frustrated.

"If I was an annoying black and blue hedgehog, where would I be?" Rage stated to himself.

"Well there's one standing right in front of me." A voice announced from behind him. He spun round, fully prepared for an offensive. "Woah! No need to get hostile!" Slayde stated as he smirked. Rage dropped his guard, but didn't relax fully. "I thought I told you all to wait for me." Slayde asked rhetorically rather bluntly. His serious side coming out.

"You've already been two hours and a half Slayde." Rage replied. Slayde sighed as he flicked through some documents.

"I did say two hours to three hours. I expected the gang to make camp and sleep anyway, it was starting to get dark when I left." Slayde retorted as he slowly walked back the way Rage came, Rage followed. "I assume you want to know what I've managed to find out?" Slayde asked slowly, no looking behind him.

"Yeah, did you find anything in this place?" Rage replied with a question of his own.

"You'll have to wait until we're in a group, I can't really be bothered to explain it more than once." Slayde finished before he started jogging at a speed that normal people would call sprinting. Rage started jogging to keep up and within tens of seconds they were once again at the door that had managed to close itself, Rage instantly felt like he'd been walking in circles this whole time if he was so close to the door still. Rage hit the button lazily before Slayde could say anything and the two walked through.

"So how we getting back up?" Rage asked. Slayde smirked.

"I assume you know how to triangle jump?" Slayde asked, Rage nodded. "Well it's designed for horizontal progress, but I'm sure if it's used correctly it can be used for vertical ascent. Either way, people who run as fast as us have been known to be able to run up places vertically with a bit of a run up, so you can do that if you wish." Slayde explained before jumping upwards, performing a rather unique method of the triangle jump. Rage shrugged and copied him all the way up.

* * *

"Do you think that Rage is going to be able to find Slayde, Shadow?" Amy asked the quiet Shadow. He had not spoken a word since Rage had left.

"He'll be fine Rose." Shadow replied. "They both will." Shadow told her before she mentioned Slayde. "Honestly, you worry more than anyone I've known."

"I miss Rage too." Prosha stated in a grumpy voiced laced with cuteness, indirectly using her age as a cute factor. Shadow, unperturbed by the cuteness, simply glared at her. He was annoyed that he didn't decide to just turn round and take her back. Although Alpha was old enough in his opinion to be there, he had since learnt of Prosha's accelerated aging and, finding out that she was in fact only four, even if it was close to being 5, and was not the physical age of 14 she now looked. She was aging 3 times the normal pace.

"It's almost been a half hour since Rage left. Which means it's almost been three hours since Slayde left." Ebony stated as she looked over at the door as if expecting something. "They can't be that far off getting back, I haven't known Slayde to be off with his timing before... Actually he's always off with his timing, by five minutes."

"So he'll be here in five minutes?" Amy asked. Ebony shook her head.

"Seven minutes, thirty two seconds." Ebony replied. Amy rolled her eyes. Shadow grabbed some of the wood the others had come back with and threw it on the fire. Sonic suddenly came out his tent.

"Hey have I missed anything." Sonic asked looking at everyone one by one. "Where's Rage?" He asked after a couple seconds.

"Rage went in to try and find Slayde, which you'd know if you wasn't too busy in that tent all the time." Shadow replied with a cooled expression on his face.

"Oh I see." Sonic replied, there was silence for a couple of seconds.

"Five minutes." Ebony announced. Sonic looked at her puzzled. Shadow sighed, looking into the fire. He obviously couldn't be bothered to explain.

"It's when she thinks Slayde and Rage will be back." Amy told him. Sonic immediately started talking to Ebony in a loud voice.

"Rose, once they're back. Would you please come with me." Shadow more stated than asked.

"Sure Shadow. But why?" Amy asked. Shadow threw some more wood onto the fire.

"I'll tell you when we're there." He replied. She shrugged before looking over to the conversation Sonic was having with Ebony.

"So I bet you." He thrust his hand into his pocket. "Fifty rings. That they will not be back in..."

"Two minutes, twenty four seconds." Ebony provided.

"Yeah, that." Sonic replied. Smirking. The whole group went silent for two minutes, staring at the hole that they went down and would come back up. "I don't-"

"Twenty seconds." Ebony cut him off. There was a pause. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." Ebony counted down, no one came out the hole.

"What are all you guys staring over there for?" Slayde's voice came from behind them. Everyone except Shadow turned. Sonic face drained as Ebony held her hand out. Sonic handed the rings over, grumbling.

"This is the first money that I've ever had." Ebony announced merrily. Sonic glared at her before heading back to his tent, Shadow also stood up.

"Everyone, wait. Could you call Terra out as well." Slayde stated, asking Sonic the question. Sonic rushed to the tent and in a minute they were all sitting round the fire. "Okay. So the whole base had next to nothing in it besides a bunch of corrupted. They weren't hard to deal with at all with an Emerald. The hard part was finding somewhere with power. I knew there would be a backup generator for at least one part of the base. After about an hour of searching I found a single LED type light on in the main 'throne room' and it got me curious. I demolished the throne and threw it aside to find a hole that was so deep I couldn't see the bottom, yet there was a slight breeze coming from it because of the distance. I had a gut feeling, and not being the type who's gut is wrong I leaped down, entered the only door down there and found something akin to a leisure room. Everything you could think of was down there. Including a computer. Took me a while, but I eventually got a load of stuff out of it including this." He handed out a few pieces of paper to everyone there.

"These are schematics for a giant robot." Shadow announced as he examined them. Slayde nodded.

"One of the types that can kick the ass of someone in super form. The Master Emerald seems to be powering it." Slayde replied.

"Tails showed some of these to me while we was at Aragot. Namely the top one. The external schematics." Sonic announced. No one really looked surprised at that. "We should be able to beat this easily, we have six of the seven Emeralds and there are 4 of us who can go into super form without them. He glanced over to Rage subtly. Maybe more."

"Yes, we have been quite lucky with the Emeralds. But the last one is in the hands of the Doctor according to these documents. So he is technically in possession of three. Master, purple and black." Slayde announced. "We have a choice to make. We march upon the place we suspect the Doctor is. Or we continue going from base to base, trying to find him." Slayde finished before grabbing a bottle of water out of nowhere.

"I don't really care what we do." Shadow announced to the group before standing and walking away from the fire. Amy quickly stood.

"I'm not bothered either. See you guys in a bit." Amy told the group before following Shadow. Sonic sent to open his mouth when suddenly static filled the air. Slayde looked over to Sonic before Sonic ran to his tent and came out carrying a small radio Tails had given to him for emergencies.

"Tails? Are you trying to reach us?" Sonic asked over the radio that seemed to be emanating nothing but static.

"Sonic? Do you read me?" Tails' voice came through really quite unhearable.

"Yeah Tails, we're here. What's happening?" Sonic replied.

"Sonic? Hello, Sonic?" Tails almost shouting in a panicked voice. "I don't know whether you can hear me and I can't hear you or if you can't hear me at all but I don't have much time as it is. The fake Emerald is gone. The only Emerald that was left powering the base has been stolen. We have enough energy stored to last us half an hour at the most but Eggman is pounding at our shield already so it may be less. If we can't find the Emerald before the shields come down... Well I'm afraid that this is it. There'll be no one left. The army outside is larger than the one that Knuckles got killed with and it has more of his favourite boss type robots." Tails shouted before static took hold again. The group were all looking at each other in shock and panic. Shadow and Amy had come back and Shadow and Slayde were the only two not exploding in panic. Tails' voice came back. "They're down! This is the last of the power we have. Tell Slayde he has to use it, I have to go now, or I won't be able to use my experimental inventions before I'm gone. Good luck guys. I'm counting on-." And it cut off. No one spoke for several minutes.

"What did he mean Slayde?" Sonic asked. Everyone except Shadow looked at Slayde.

Everyone's eyes were on Slayde.

"He left me something as a 'just in case' plan before we left. Though it doesn't matter unless we have all the Emeralds." Slayde replied. Prosha, Alpha, Noir, Ebony and Terra seemed satisfied with that. Sonic, Amy and Rage however, did not.

"Yes. What did he leave you?" Sonic asked. Terra pulled on his arm.

"He'll tell you when he's ready." She said to him. "Won't you Slayde?" She confirmed hesitantly. Slayde nodded slowly after a second to think. "See."

"I need to be alone for a little." Slayde announced before disappearing in a flash of yellow. Amy frowned at the spot where he disappeared from.

"Rage, chuck me my Emerald." Shadow stated. Rage threw him his green Emerald back.

"Shadow don't you-" Amy started before Shadow likewise vanished in a flash of green. "Dare..." Amy glared at the spot that Shadow vanished from for several seconds before sitting down in a mood.

"Anyone here know what's going on?" Rage asked. Sonic shrugged before getting dragged into a making out session by Terra as she pulled him towards the tent. The others didn't seem to care at all and Amy was too busy looking into the fire in annoyance to hear what Rage had said. Rage sighed before going to his and Alpha's tent, presumably for a nap.

* * *

"That's what Tail's gave me, though you probably already worked that out for yourself." Slayde told Shadow. Shadow simply nodded in confirmation. "Either way, this thing that Natani gave me is useless without the others." Slayde commented as he placed a time stone back inside the cloth that had been covering it all this time and back into his rucksack. "We need to go and get that seventh Emerald or we cannot use it. If only little planet hadn't been destroyed by the Doctor already. We could get the other time stones. I'm pretty sure this one the King had was the only one that was outside at the time."

"I presume that is why the Doctor has destroyed it, otherwise Tails may have already tried it." Shadow contributed. Slayde nodded.

"That is what I was thinking myself. This time line is a mess. Without a paradox machine there is no way we could possibly fix it." Slayde stated. "You should probably get back to Amy. She'll get annoyed if you're gone for too long." Slayde sighed. "And if you could please tell them that we move at first light." Shadow nodded before disappearing in a flash of green, instantly reappearing in another flash of green next to the fire.

"We move at first light." Shadow told the group rather bluntly before he gently pulled Amy aside. As soon as they were out of view Shadow threw a random punch at her. She caught it. "Good. Your reaction speed is fast improving, far faster than I would have imagined. Tomorrow we are hitting the Doctors main fortress. So there will be no sparing tonight. Tonight we relax. Do you wish to sleep?" Shadow stated before asking. Amy shook her head. "Then spend tonight with me." It was a simple enough statement, but it seemed to carry a lot of meaning behind it. Shadow laid down and looked up. Thanks to their efforts on destroying the bases the stars in this area were all fully visible. Amy laid down next to him as they both watched the stars for a little while. Shadow put his hand in Amy's while they continued to watch the stars and this sparked them both to start pointing out constellations to one another until they both finally succumbed to sleep.


	17. 16 End to Tyranny

_End to Tyranny_

"Hey Shadow." A whisper woke him, a fair weight seemed to be resting itself on his right shoulder. He opened his eyes, there was only a sliver of light, but he could see Slayde just fine, and Amy laying asleep on his shoulder. "I'll leave you to wake her, wouldn't want to ruin the moment." He whispered before he vanished in a flicker of yellow.

"Rose." Shadow whispered before stroking some of his quills out of her face. The moving of her quills seemed to disturb her as she groaned and opened her eyes. Looking right into his eyes she smiled causing his stomach to do a back flip. Shadow suddenly was filled with appreciation for Slayde's small gesture.

"Heya Shadow." She mumbled sleepily. A slight smile made its way to Shadow's lips before he spoke and it vanished.

"We need to get moving." Shadow told her gently. She quickly got off him and stood up. Considering that they had both fallen to sleep on the ground they weren't all that dirty. "Let's head back to camp." The two of them quickly ran back to camp to find that most of it had already been packed away.

"Shadow, do you think you could try getting the two of them up. I've already collapsed the tent on them and they still haven't woke. I daren't go in there." Slayde asked him.

"If you two don't get out here in five minutes I'm teleporting you out. And I neither know, nor care how much clothing you have on." Shadow announced. Slayde came back over again.

"Yeah, I don't really feel like letting you and Sonic fight it out for seeing his girlfriend naked when we're about to go into an important battle." Slayde told him.

"Well what do you suggest we do?" Shadow questioned. Slayde looked like he was thinking for a second before a wicked grin came across his face.

"Let's add a little bit of water. _Chaos Torrent._" He shouted as water gushed from both his hands and soaked the tent and all who were in it. The tents may have been water resistant, but little could withstand that volume of water.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Sonic shouted before Terra started laughing in hysterics. Sonic started fighting the wet tent until he spin dashed his way out completely naked. Luckily that didn't matter so much to a male Mobian. "All of my clothes are in there!" Sonic shouted while Terra could still be heard in the tent finding the whole thing hilarious, her head now peaking out, looking at Sonic's red and angry face. "And so are Terra's!"

"She can borrow some of mine." Amy said, indicating her completely dry tent. Terra had finally stopped laughing and disappeared in a flash of light blue before peaking her head out of Amy's and Prosha's tent.

"Think you could show me what I can and cannot wear?" Terra asked, amusement still on her lips. Amy quickly disappeared into the tent with her.

"How am I supposed to pack something this wet?" Sonic asked.

"Does it really matter? You broke it." Slayde replied. "Terra will have to go in with the girls and you can come in with either me and Shadow or Rage and Alpha." Shadow didn't look to impressed with the idea, and neither did Sonic when he looked at Shadow.

"I'll go in with Rage." Sonic stated. Slayde smiled.

"Then it's settled!" He announced. Sonic walked off mumbling something before he started getting all of the wet clothes out of the tent and putting them in a plastic bag. "Everything going to plan, there will be no need anyway Shadow." Slayde muttered to Shadow before walking off himself. "I already put our tent down and stored it in Chaos Closet as usual. Food's on the fire if you want any." He told him as he pointed towards where the smoke was coming from, so presumably the fire, the morning was getting lighter surprisingly rapidly. Though that was likely due to the lack of clouds in this area now. Amy and Terra came out of the tent. Terra was wearing some jeans and a purple tank top.

"Well it doesn't go the best with your fur, but it matches your eyes." Amy said happily, smiling. Terra smiled back.

"Thanks for the loan, I'll make it up to you sometime!" Terra told her merrily.

"Hey beautiful." Sonic stated as he kissed her. Terra kissed him back.

"I'm going to go see if they're cooking on that fire. Don't be too long." Terra told him as he went back to the tent to find stuff that was salvageable.

Half an hour later the whole group was up, fed and ready.

"Okay then!" Slayde stated, rubbing his hands together. "As you all know we found our sixth Emerald yesterday, the light blue one. Now as you know, or at least most of you do, there are six of us here who can use Chaos Control. Me, Shadow, Amy, Terra, Sonic and Rage. So there are also four who cannot. Prosha, Ebony, Alpha and Noir. So each of those who cannot use Chaos control need to group up with someone who can. My suggestions are as followed: Amy and Ebony, Rage and Alpha, Prosha and Terra, Noir and Sonic. If you have a problem with them then I'd suggest changing it before we leave, which will be in the next few seconds."

"Who made you boss?" Sonic suddenly piped up. Half the group rolled their eyes, but Slayde looked quite serious.

"Well I guess Tails did when he handed me the machine and not you." Slayde answered quite spitefully. Sonic suddenly shut up, going slightly red from this statement. He would have expected Tails to trust him most. "Any more questions from anyone they want answering bluntly?" Slayde asked rather coolly. Seeming more hostile than usual.

"Who are you?" Rage asked suddenly.

"Nice try Rage. Everyone grab your Emeralds." Slayde stated as he pulled out the yellow Emerald. Rage pulled out the red one, Amy the blue, Terra the light blue, Shadow the green, Sonic the white. "There's a hill to the South east of the city that we all have come to know. We shall land there. Now everyone to their teleporting partners." He motioned. Everyone moved to their afore suggested partners. "See you all in a few."

"_Chaos Control_." They said in unison. Everyone disappeared in a flash of various colours.

Many miles away they reappeared in flashes. Light blue, blue, red and white. The four standing there stood silent for a second. Before Amy spoke.

"Where's Shadow and Slayde?" She asked no one in particular. There was a sudden, very loud explosion to the north west and almost immediately another to the south west. Everyone looked from the hill they had landed on that was overlooking Robotnik's city of metal. There were two separate plumes of smoke rising from opposite ends of the city.

"Call it a wild guess." Rage started as there was a yellow flash from behind him.

"But we're at either explosion?" Slayde finished from behind him. "Yeah, I'd make the same assumption. Shadow's in the middle, in that wide and tall tower, looking for the Emerald as he's good at finding those damn things. I fell back to brief you guys." Slayde announced quite melodramatically. "We are to cause hell. That is all." Slayde told them with a smirk before disappearing in another flash of yellow and a third explosion sounded from the north end of the city.

"Show offs." Muttered Sonic before he teleported with Noir in a flash of blue, the others followed. Sonic found himself in the middle of a mechanical street that looked typically like all of the others that they had been to. The only difference was that there seemed to be a lot less worker bots round, a lot less bots in general in fact. "It's quiet."

"Too quiet." Noir agreed before looking up. "Look out! He shouted as he pushed Sonic over. A large metal object suddenly crashed right where the two were just seconds previously.

"Thanks little guy." Sonic called out. There was no answer. Sonic quickly made his way round the object to check to see if the little fox was alright. Sonic found him in a few seconds through the dust that somehow got kicked up from the piece of metal hitting more metal and realised he was bleeding from the head. Sonic quickly grabbed his wrist and checked for a pulse. He let out a sigh of relief when he felt one. Noir had simply been knocked unconscious. He quickly looked round. There was no where he could put him and him be safe. He started to realise just how hot he was getting. The dust seemed to be warming up and getting thicker. He looked over to where the metal had broken the other metal and he realised that it had broken a pipe that must have been carrying steam. Sonic suddenly got picked up from behind by a machine not unlike another egg emperor but without the shield and spear.

"What do we have here?" It spoke before dropping Sonic. Sonic fell face first on the ground before quickly whipping his body round. However his reactions were not fast enough and the tin monster had already put its foot on top of him.

"Get off of him!" A female voice sounded from behind the robot before it was picked up and thrown mightily across the 'square' in the metal city. Sonic looked up to see a blackened Terra standing above him, her light blue eyes shining through the steam. "Planning on getting up?" She asked him, holding out her hand and smirking at him. Sonic smirked back and grasped her hand pulling himself up.

"Heh. Thanks for that." Sonic stated as he watched the robot pull itself out of a small fissure. Terra shot at the robot as Sonic quickly did a double back and searched the thick steam for Noir. It took him a few seconds before he found him but just as he did a rather fast moving black hedgehog hit into him. "Ooft."

"Sorry Sonic! He's a bit stronger than he looks." She told him as she jumped up and sweat dropped.

"You needing help?" Sonic asked teasingly. She gave him an icy look.

"You just get Noir back to that hill and then come on back. This place has far too many strong robots in for the kiddies to deal with." Terra snapped, it was obvious that she was annoyed that she had been hit like that. Sonic teleported out of sight in a blue flash and Terra floated her way out of the smoke. "Now where were we?" She rhetorically asked the now three giant robots that were standing in front of her, the two newcomers looking far more deadly than the previous.

* * *

Amy looked about. It was obvious that battles had started in various parts of the city, but so far she had seen no one, not friend nor foe. Even Ebony had vanished.

"Hello?" Amy shouted out. She had another glance round and, after a few moments realised she was right next to the tower, placing herself almost in the dead centre of the city. "How did I go so off course?" Amy muttered to herself. Suddenly there was a crash as a rather dazed black hedgehog came flying out of the buildings wall, Amy managed to catch him and stop his flying progress.

"Amy?" Shadow asked, slightly dazed before he brought back his resolve in a matter of seconds. "Sorry, no time to chat." He stated as his fur turned golden and he shot back through the hole he had just come through. Amy just stood there gawping for a few second before she followed through the hole, almost immediately regretting it as she started falling with a rather irritated look on her face. She had just enough time to sigh before she face planted the floor, it being too dark to see properly. She looked up and was amazed at what she was seeing. The room that she was in must have been several times larger than the actual city itself. She could see tell tale signs of warped space in the room and decided that Robotnik must be using the Emerald to create a small pocket dimension as she had learnt about it being possible before from Shadow. She could see in the distance a small yellow light shooting about and battling a looming great blackness that could only be a fairly large machine. Fairly large being three stories high yet quite nimble. Amy quickly scanned the room and could see several doors. She scratched her head. Before running off through one, time to prove herself to Shadow by beating him to the Emerald.

* * *

"My god. How many generators does one city have?" Slayde stated in frustration. He had been targeting the power sources of the city in an attempt to take down the defence system that seemed to be chasing him, but it wasn't really going according to plan.

"Intruder number 58 detected. Initiating security protocol seven." The robotic voice read out before launching several missiles out of the wall at Slayde. Slayde had a rather depressed look on his face as he smashed the panel that the voice read out of.

"Why on earth am I as high as 58?!" He shouted at no one in particular as he expertly dodged the missiles, fully frustrated at the security system. "Surely I should be about fifth after Sonic, Shadow, Tails and Knuckles?" He announced to the broken panel. There was of course no reply. Slayde sighed. "I'm getting too old for this." He told himself before he ran off back into the streets, looking for more generators that needed putting down. In minutes he had come across one that was bigger than all the rest that had come before. He sighed in relief, it was about time he found a main generator. He ran inside the structure to find it quite straightforward. That was until he noticed what was in the middle powering the thing. He stared at it for a few seconds before he sighed. A lump of Chaos crystal floated in the middle of the device. No wonder taking out all of the other generators didn't do anything if this one was on the same circuit. It was quite likely that the others weren't even operational anymore, and were only working on the lead up to the development and how to tap into the power of the crystals. Slayde couldn't help but wonder where the Doctor had found this cluster. Although he had seen more impressive clusters, this most certainly placed in the top five. The crystals themselves were incredibly dark, almost black, yet the sustained a shade of purple of which its deepness was hard to describe. Slayde then realised why he had been unable to sense anyone inside the city. The amount of Chaos radiation that was coming off this place was almost like a clogging mist. Creating small warps in space and time that were barely noticeable but still there. The way the Robotnik had organised his city was on the verge of creating a gigantic rift with Chaos energy, and with no way to tell where the rift would lead it was extremely dangerous. Slayde glanced at the crystals again and sighed. With the amount of distortion that was occurring round the city removing the crystals outright with Chaos Control could quite likely cause space to collapse in on itself, creating the afore mentioned object. On the other hand, if left unchecked it could power Chaos knew how many robots, defences, etc. There were two ways he could deal with the problem, both as risky as the other, but for different reasons.

He could either risk tearing them out, hoping for the best and chancing the fact that the whole system could simply collapse round his friends, killing millions and preventing them from saving anyone.

Or he could attempt to drain the crystals of their power, taking it into his own body so he could try and diffuse it slowly back into a Chaos Emerald or use it himself. But if the power of the crystals was too much the attempt could kill him or, worse, remove him from the time line and prevent him from existing in all memory. It was a tough call, but it was one that he had to make.

He sighed as he placed his hands on the lump of crystals and he started glowing a slight purple. He wasn't selfish enough to value his life against an entire planets.

* * *

Shadow could have sworn that he just saw something pink and hedgehog like run through one of the doors in the back of the room, but at the same time he couldn't be sure. The room was as big as it was badly lighted and it was _massive_. The room was obviously some kind of warped space, likely generated from the Chaos Emerald they all knew the tyrant had. Yet it also seemed odd that such a large robot had been built here. Just looking at the floor you could see the robot which was almost complete that was filling almost half the room. Still he had more pressing matters to attend to. The robot that seemed to be built for guarding this room was surprising quick and nimble. Though it was almost the size of a large car. Lucky despite the fact that it was almost as fast as him, in his super form, it barely packed a punch. True it had managed to swing him out the room, but now that he was serious the thing was doing the dodging instead of him. Still, Shadow hoped that The Doctor hadn't mass produced them, more than five and it may start being a challenge.

"This has gone on long enough." Shadow stated in a strong voice. Shadow held his left hand to his right side, staring down the robot that didn't seem to have any sort of vocal recognition software what so ever. Though it could have been that it understood Robotnik's vocal patterns and his alone. "_Chaos Lance!_" Shadow shouted as he released a yellow bolt of Chaos Energy not unlike his trademark attack Chaos Spear except, that it looked far larger, it was almost like a Chaos Spear that had been left to charge for an hour. Its power tore through the metal like butter as the machine instantly powered down and the Lance disappeared in a flicker. "Hmpf." Shadow breathed indignantly.

Shadow powered down and ran out of the room through the nearest door to him, breathing ever so slightly heavier than he usually did.

* * *

Sonic reappeared in a blue flash in front of a rather annoyed and bored looking Prosha, who immediately looked excited.

"You come to get me?" She questioned excitedly. Then she noticed who Sonic was carrying in his arms. "Oh..." She mouthed as Sonic placed him in front of her.

"Do you think that you could look after him for me? While we do what we have to do in this place." Sonic requested as he looked back to the city. His worry for Terra evident on his face. "This base." Sonic paused, not completely sure what to say. "This city of robots is different to all the others. This city is probably the most terrible thing that has ever been made on the planet." He looked at Prosha. There was stress on his face, which was a first for the blue blur. He had never felt it before. He had moments where he had worried, true. But nothing of this scale. Maybe that was what being romantically involved did to you? You feel the best of emotions, yet it also opens up a way for some of the worst to come as well.

"Of course!" Prosha shouted enthusiastically, knocking Sonic out of his train of thought. Sonic smiled at her before disappearing in a flash of blue light, reappearing immediately back where Terra was. He found the scene awfully quiet, nothing seemed to be moving. He knew that the main power source must have been taken out, but it seemed awfully odd that the larger robots whom Terra was fighting would just shut down. Or for that matter that Terra would just leave the area when she knew he would likely return here. Sonic sighed whilst scanning the area, he didn't like this one bit. A bit of rubble shifted. Sonic quickly ran over to it and lifted up a large piece of it to find an unconscious brown Hedgehog.

"Terra? Terra wake up!" Sonic almost shouted in a panic as he picked her shoulders up gently. Terra frowned and groaned before coughing up a little bit of blood.

"Wow can that thing hit." Terra mumbled as she pushed Sonic hands off and tried to get up. Sonic held his hand out and she took it, helping her get up right away. "Don't worry, the bloods from my gums. I'm just a tad winded." She reassured the concerned look on Sonic's face.

"What happened?" Sonic questioned. The robot that he saw should have been took down by Terra easily. Although looking round he could see the remnants of two quite large robots or very many small ones.

"Well as you left, two more arrived. One of them just sat there doing nothing while the other two attacked. It wasn't that hard of a fight. The one that you saw was destroyed in a second, the other in ten. But then the last one came at me. God could it move fast. I barely dodged its attacks. It was going toe to toe with me for speed, even if it did seem to be lacking strength. I was just gaining the upper hand when suddenly all of the power shut down. I expected the robot to be distracted by that, I even dared hope it got weaker... I would never have expected it to suddenly get stronger. Suddenly I found myself flying into the building, with such strength that it made the buildings supports weak, I looked up and the robot had vanished. Then the building collapsed on me and I must have lost consciousness." Terra explained quite thoroughly. Sonic looked towards the tower in the middle of the city. "No dwelling, we have people relying on us. If Shadow says we need that Emerald then we do our best to help him get it!" Terra announced in a pep talk. Sonic nodded.

"Yeah." Sonic agreed. Looking towards the sky there seemed to be some kind of odd distortion in the clouds, if he wasn't mistaken there was something with crazy power there. "Let's go." Sonic pointed out before dashing off with Terra in his wake.

* * *

Left, the corridor doubled back on itself or went right. Left again and Amy hit another dead end. The place was like a damn maze. In fact it was worse than a maze because A. most mazes didn't include deadly, biological, heat seeking missiles. And B. You could give up on trying to get through a maze without having to worry about the apocalypse. Amy sighed, at least there didn't seem to be anything shooting at her down this corridor. She dared a hope, willing for the reason that the attacks had stopped was because she herself was near the Emerald and Robotnik didn't dare have traps too close to it. She frowned and leant against a wall, she mentally scolded herself about giving herself false hopes as she realised that she wasn't stopping against the wall. She hit the ground and winded herself before picking herself up and looking to see what was near her. There was no wall where she had just fallen through, just a hole leading to the corridor. She quickly stepped back out into the corridor and was meet with a seemingly solid wall. She placed her hand on it and found it simply went straight through. The experience was trippy to say the least as she walked through a solid object back into the room that shouldn't have existed considering that there was a corridor just on the other side of the wall. Amy could think of two simple explanations for both occurrences. The wall either was holographic, though that didn't seem likely else it would be visible from this side, or the wall was simply in another part of existence. As for the room, the wall could have been acting as an active teleported, yet her biological senses didn't seem to think she had moved at all, or it was simply another area of warped space. Either one was possible, though looking to see what the room contained, the second seemed more likely.

"The Emerald!" Amy almost shouted out. It was in a strange looking device floating in the centre of it. Her guess was that the machine was drawing on the Emeralds power. Suddenly she felt a wave of sickness. She peered round the Purple Emerald to see a Black one. Amy breathed in deeply and shook her head. She wasn't about to let a stupid unnerving Fake Emerald stop her from taking the Chaos Emerald. She walked towards the Purple Emerald slowly, feeling the odd waves of revulsion the closer that she got. She took one last deep breath before grabbing the Emerald and making a run for it towards the entrance to the room which seemed to be fading. Her eyes widened as she jumped through it, still feeling slightly nauseous. She looked back to the wall as it appeared to solidify. _'Good riddance' _She thought before fleeing out of the halls and back towards the tower so she could leave from where she came.

Shadow looked round the corridors. He had broken anything that had dared shoot at him, yet he didn't seem to be any closer to finding the Emerald. The place seemed massive and seemed to be built out of that same annoying material that blocked Chaos abilities. Shadow sighed, there had to be a way of telling where the Emerald was. Alarms suddenly started blaring, causing him to frown. He had been discovered long ago, so what had changed in the mean time? He caught a flash of pink and someone streaked past him in the corridor in front. He rolled his eyes and immediately took off after her. "Amy!" Shadow shouted after the pink blur, but she didn't seem to notice. He started sprinting in order to try and catch up with her, she was definitely getting faster because Shadow was only gaining on her slowly and it was frustrating him. In a wave of frustration he activated his air shoes despite being in such a confined space and pushed forward, gaining on her quite quickly. Suddenly Shadow found himself in the room that he was fighting the robot. "Amy!" He shouted once again. Amy suddenly stopped and turned round Shadow tried to break but had forgotten he activated his air shoes and went crashing straight into Amy, the both of them rolling across the floor.

"Owiie." Amy stated, rubbing her arm as she stood back up. Shadow pushed himself up, a slight rip in his jeans and a graze on his knee.

"Sorry Rose." Shadow apologised as he picked himself up. Suddenly the room started lighting up. "What the...?" Shadow trailed off. Amy clutched the Emerald in her hand.

"Shadow I got the Emerald." Amy stated happily, holding it in her hands showing him. Shadow looked at her awestruck before looking up.

"Amy, put it away." He growled. Amy looked at him quite cluelessly until she looked up. There were several robots, and all of them were the same as the one Shadow was fighting.

"So this is where my Emerald got to! I'll be taking that back I do believe... And you were so kind as to bring me two other Emeralds. I thank you." Robotnik's voice, however his voice seemed a little off, came from the lead bot that looked like it had some adornments likely for a chain of command. Shadow placed his Emerald in Amy's hand.

"Rose, run, I'll hold off the cavalry just get that Emerald to Slayde." He stated as he powered up into Super Shadow.

"No need Shadow." An eerie version of Slayde's voice spoke. Shadow and Amy looked over to the culprit to see Slayde, except he was basked in a purple aura and looked drunk.

"You haven't done what I think you have?" Shadow snarled in an a panicked voice. To Amy he even had a hint of worry in it, which worried her more than she could even express. Slayde nodded, looking like he was about to burst into laughter at the thought of it. "You fool!" Shadow shouted. Slayde just stuck his tongue out like a little boy before smiling like he was completely out of it.

"Another one of you won't make a difference-" Robotnik started before the group of robots blew up in a flash of purple akin to the aura round Slayde.

"Shut it." Slayde spoke to the room in general. Shadow grabbed him by the shoulders and started pulling him along.

"What's up with him Shadow?" Amy asked, Slayde started watching something that seemed to be flying round his head.

"He's absorbed Chaos Crystals, or Chaosyte (Cay-Oh-Site). They are grown in the presence of a Chaos Emerald. One can artificially speed up the process to make them, but it takes hundreds of years from them to grow naturally, without the Emeralds. They are basically... Drugs for Chaos users, both performance enhancing and... Well you can see what state he's in. They give you a high which actually boosts your power dramatically depending on how much you absorb. But there are a lot of side effects, like the temporary insanity he's experiencing right now, the more you have the higher the boost but the higher the risk. Too much can cause just about any illness, they can cause death... But that's not the worst of it." Shadow explained. Amy now looked really worried.

"What could be worse than that?" Amy asked, almost fearfully.

"It can completely erase your existent, or at least... It's believed they can. There's no hard proof, but a fair few powerful Chaos wielders, including myself, have noticed inconsistencies that could only be there if someone had vanished. It changes the physical world completely, and yet there's always something that lingers on...

"Anyway, the stronger you are, the more you can take without side effects. Slayde is almost as strong as me... I'd hate to know just how much he must have took to be in this state. Right now I think he'd be able to hit Hyper Form... With room to spare. It'd burn off the energy really fast, but at least he'd be safe from the ill effect." Shadow finished his explanation. Now Amy really was worried.

"If we can't get the Energy out of him could he die?" Amy questioned, hoping for a no.

"No... Death is one of the symptoms that manifest right at the beginning of absorption, AKA, as soon as you hit too much for your body you're gone. (So the existence erasing could only happen to someone who was in the white group!) No, he won't die, but the insanity could stick." Shadow told her with utmost certainty. This relaxed Amy marginally, but not that much. She remained silent as they made their way to the hole in the wall that had gotten bigger, the rubble quite conveniently forming a staircase. As they made their way to the top Slayde and Shadow suddenly stopped walking.

"What's up?" Amy asked in a voice laced with worry. Slayde pulled his arm out of her grip like she wasn't even there and pointed backwards. Suddenly there was a groan of metal that could likely be heard throughout the entire city. Amy turned round slowly, already knowing what it was but wanting to confirm it with her own eyes. The arm of the giant robot was moving, and it was pulling up. "Holy shit." Amy muttered.

"Run!" Shouted Shadow as he started to drag Slayde along, Slayde being surprisingly cooperative despite his mental state. They ran at a fairly slow pace compared to normal due to Slayde, but before they knew it they ran headlong into Sonic and Terra.

"What was that noise that we just heard?" Sonic asked cautionately but Shadow wasn't really in the mood to talk, and went straight past them, so he started following the group of three. "And what's up with him?" Sonic questioned in a slightly curious but in a mostly freaked out way. Since Shadow seemed to be carrying Slayde fine by himself Amy let go and fell back with Sonic and Terra.

"The big robot Robotnik was working on? Seems it's activated... As for Slayde, apparently he's done something that's basically taking drugs for Chaos users. Giving him a temporary power up." Amy told him. Sonic nodded, deciding against talking until they suddenly came to a stop. Whereas Terra rolled her eyes. Obviously she knew as much about them as Shadow.

"This should be far enough from that robot." Shadow stated as he pulled a strange device out of Slayde's back pack. Sonic instantly recognised it as the thing he had seen in Tails' room. Before Sonic could say anything however, Shadow held out his hand. "I need the Emerald we lent you." Shadow commanded. Sonic looked at him in rage, but didn't bother saying anything simply because he knew that Shadow would ignore him and take it anyway. He placed it into Shadow's hand as Terra pulled hers out and held it out towards Shadow, earning a slight look of respect from him.

"You know, I just noticed that there are houses here. Why would Robotnik need houses?" Sonic pointed out. Shadow looked up and round.

"You're right. But why would he bother with houses?" Shadow replied to no one in particular.

"It's because this base was made on top of a large city. So some of the original frame is still here." Amy informed them both, a look of realisation of their own stupidity creeping on Sonic's face more than Shadow's. "There's the two Emeralds I have Shadow." Amy announced to him as he took the two from each of Amy's outstretched hands, the slight blush on his muzzle concealed by his dark fur unlike Sonic's red cheeks.

"We're missing someone~" Slayde sung in a slightly eerie voice as he stared at Shadow with one eye half open and the other one wide. Shadow gave him a look of irritation, he hated it when the people he was with did the crystals. When they over did it, they were just plain unbearable.

"That's a point. I haven't seen hide nor hair of him since we left the mountainside. Or of Alpha for that matter." Terra stated, Shadow looked slightly perturbed.

"Rage was the weakest of us Chaos users, which is why me and Slayde put him with the strongest one out of those who could not manifest physical Chaos. To fight the enemies here effectively, I had to go into Super Form. As far as I know, Rage couldn't do that... Dammit, we overlooked something." Shadow speculated, slamming his fist into the wall he had rested the machine on.

"You shouldn't... Worry so much. He never... Did tell the two of you who he was did he? Well it seems... You're about to find out." Slayde told the both of them, taking inconvenient breaths in his speech causing odd pausing, practically ignoring the presence of all else.

"Wait, you can sense them? I can't feel it over the interference left in the cabling." Shadow asked impatiently.

"Of course. The same power... Runs in me now..." Slayde told him. Shadow looked at him.

"Tell me where they are Slayde." Shadow demanded.

"Aww, but the fun's about to begin." He told him, most of the group looked confused. Shadow didn't, he just looked irritated. "And there goes one flame." Slayde whispered in both sadness and delight. Shadow was about to start shouting for the first time in ages, but then he felt a slight pressure coming from the north-east.

"Quickly everyone." Shadow raised his voice in panic as a second wave of the pressure came, strong enough for everyone to feel this time. Shadow grabbed Slayde under the arm and started running. Slayde didn't bother half arsed running this time and ran at the pace of the group so Shadow let go and focus on moving. Within seconds they arrived on the scene. Rage was up against four of the robots that Shadow was against just earlier with that amount Shadow was certain he himself would get tired, so Rage was certain to die. Shadow powered himself up as started rocketing towards Rage until Slayde moved in his way, shaking his head. Shadow was about to push past until he noticed something beside Rage. An unmoving Grey wolf stained with red. "I see." Shadow motioned as he powered down and returned to stand next to the others.

"Why isn't anyone helping him?" Amy asked, trying to break through a grip that Sonic seemed to have on her.

"You noticed it before I did then Sonic?" Shadow stated. Sonic nodded.

"Yeah, I noticed one was missing." Sonic replied. Shadow folded his arms and frowned.

"I see." Shadow answered. Amy was continuing to struggle so Shadow took her other arm, Sonic let go.

"I need to go help him, let me go help him." Amy shouted at Shadow, violently trying to break out his grip.

"Amy, there is something you must understand." Shadow simply said calmly, Amy stopped struggling. "There are two types of fights. Well three I guess, but I'm meaning real fights, there are fights to protect one's life. And then there are fights to protect ones honour, or pride. If we interfere now we will certainly save his life, but what would become of his pride? He's sworn to tear them down to avenge his comrade. We must respect his wishes." Shadow concluded. Amy snatched her hand out of Shadow's but made no move to help Rage.

"Men." She muttered in anger, earning a giggle from Terra.

"But it's strange. His power feels like he's in Super Form, but at the same time he doesn't look like he is." Sonic stated.

"You're wondering about that?" Slayde asked from behind. Sonic turned and looked at him confused, he could see Shadow looking as well, but more out of interest than curiosity. "As you well know, there are two base elements in Chaos. Dark and Light.

"These two elements in different quantities, in their respective several types, make up everything in our universe. However, when it comes to fighting there is one other thing that is at the core of our very power. That is our style of fighting and progression of which there are two types. 'Dou' and 'Sei'. These two together form what the humans call 'qi'.

"'Dou' types are people who use anger as a medium to burst through their limits and use it to grow stronger. A good example of a 'Dou' user would be Sonic, who's anger at the death of his friend brought forth his power from our time in the chamber.

"'Sei' types are people who use calm penetrating logic to ascertain the best way to progress. A good example of a 'Sei' user would of course be Shadow, who's cool temperament looked for a way to prevent his pride being dinted in front of his disciple and therefore brought forth the power he had gained from our time in the chamber.

"In rare circumstances people have been known to be able to use both, as such they grew in power both quickly and violently but ultimate all died young from either misjudgement and cockiness or their bodies burning up faster than a normal person due to the violent auras clashing together. Rage is one such person, he can not only use a perfect balance of 'Dou' and 'Sei', but he can also use a perfect balance of light and dark Chaos. It's not that he's not in a Super Form or Dark Super Form. It's that he's in such a strange clash between the two, they are cancelling each other out visually. If you recall, I did the same thing when I had the Emeralds to power up." Slayde concluded.

"His power's still rising." Shadow commented as he watched Rage decimate the first robot. "It's gone above Sonic's power now and is somewhere between mine and his." Sonic looked at him in an irritated way and opened his mouth to speak. "Yes he's stronger than you." Sonic's mouth opened and closed a couple of times until he breathed in to speak again.

"He's getting a little bit too strong isn't he? I mean he trains as much as I do, maybe less." Sonic stated. Slayde started laughing at him causing everyone to look, even Shadow who was engrossed in the fight.

"He was born with it! Or should I say created... He's you and Shadow, mixed up a bit, pounded together and smeared into the Petri dish until Robotnik was satisfied that he had removed both your weaknesses but kept both your strengths. Did you never wonder how he could be so strong without even trying? Ironic really. All he wants is a peaceful life." Slayde concluded leaving everyone except Shadow gob smacked as he looked back to the battle.

"Yo, don't tell me you knew Shadow." Sonic told him rather angrily in an unreasonable way considering how long Slayde had kept it from him and not mentioned it. Shadow just shrugged.

"I had my suspicions." Shadow replied simply, eyes not leaving the fight. There was now just one robot left, but Rage looked as if he was at his limit, his breath heavy, his sight blurry. He fell to his knees as the last robot towered over him, preparing for the final strike.

"You're not giving up that easily are you Rage?" Slayde chipped in from the back of the group. Rage's eyes snapped open and he held his hand back. The robot swung a mighty blow right at his head.

"_Chaos Tear._" Rage muttered angrily as he slashed his hand across. The robot just froze before collapsing and falling apart, its internal chassis and electronics vanished. Rage collapsed, and Amy shouted in panic.

"Don't worry, he's not dead. Just exhausted. The Wolf however..." Shadow told her as there was a mighty crash from behind them. It seemed the big robot had made it out of its room. There was a mighty metallic roar. Shadow quickly gripped his hand on the device to find that it was no longer in his hands. He looked up in worry, surely he didn't drop it. He noticed Slayde kneeling next to Rage's body, with the device whilst activating it, and gave a sigh of relief. It seemed that Slayde at least had some of his rationality left.

"This'll take several minutes to power up." Slayde muttered in a strange way that allowed everyone to still hear him. Shadow was starting to worry now, which was unusual for his personality. For some reason Slayde wasn't releasing the power he absorbed at all. Could it be because he thought it would just go back to the crystals? Shadow couldn't be sure. He just knew it was getting dangerous.

"Shadow!" The doctors voice came across from what must have only been the giant robot. "Sonic too! How wonderful... Allow me to show you something, incredible." The doctor told them as the robot fell still. Holographic displays beamed out of the things eyes, displaying the Doctor, but he had changed. His moustache had turned grey, his style had changed, no long way he wearing his red coat, but was now wearing one that was black with yellow patterns. His love of red was still however shown in a full body suit under his now black and yellow coat. His old black boots had been replaced by black and yellow stripped boots, and finally he had replaced the goggles atop his head with more visor looking goggles. He stared right from the projection at them with glowing red eyes. "How do you like the new me? Seems that black Emerald contained a little more than I bargained for... Eternal life! Hee hee hee." He boasted as he placed some deep blue sunglasses on. The holographic image faded. "Now then... It's time for you to die. I'll try to capture you, but unfortunately that's simply not likely." The robot started moving with shocking speed considering its size as a fist of steel plunged down towards the group. Shadow and Sonic quickly powered up into their respective super forms and shot off in either direction.

"Doctor! Give up on this foolishness! If one born without immortality tries to force it all sorts of side effects can follow!" Shadow shouted to him, Robotnik just laughed at him and changed the direction of the robots swing instantaneously. Such speed that shouldn't possibly be attainable by such a large robot. One of the fists managed to hit Shadow sending him spinning. He then shot towards the fist of the other arm, which had been occupying itself with Sonic, but it flew at Shadow with blinding speed. Causing Shadow to back off rather than get in an attack.

"A machine that large should be breaking and cracking the earth at its feet." Sonic commented as the two flew past each other. Shadow looked down. He was right. The earth hadn't been harmed at all.

"What on Mobius is this robot?" Shadow asked no one in wonder. The doctor heard him.

"This is my greatest creation! It is powered by the Master Emerald! I call it. The Destroyer." He announced quite evilly. Everyone paused upon hearing the name, causing both Shadow and Sonic to get hit.

"If it doesn't have 'Egg' in the name it's probably actually something quite deadly." Sonic commented to Shadow as they stopped out of its reach. Shadow nodded before shooting towards the robot and unleashing a barrage of Chaos attacks causing a load of smoke and explosions. The smoke cleared slowly, revealing the robot once again bit by bit. It was completely undamaged, it hadn't even moved an inch.

"Hee hee. Let me show you my machines true power. I was merely toying with you before." Robotnik shouted in his glee. The robot started floating slightly, allowing it to use all four of its limbs. Shadow was hit by a kick so ferocious he was winded. It was like being smashed by a skyscraper. Which was the only comparable thing to the size of the robot. Sonic looked over to Shadow to check he was okay, only to be hit by a punch himself, his consciousness flickering for a split second.

"No, no it can't be... Shadow and Sonic. They... They're losing..." Amy whispered in fear as Shadow was ploughed into the ground, taking a few seconds to get up. Sonic followed him, smashing into the same location causing an extra hit on Shadow as they hit one another. Terra powered up in rage after Sonic didn't get up, but felt a hand on her shoulder stopping her.

"Go get Shadow and Sonic and get them to that machine. There's no on switch, as soon as it's ready it will activate and everyone needs to be holding it when it does. I've already got Rage holding it, though he's barely conscious." Slayde stated, seemingly sane. "I'm trusting you." He told her heavily, making her feel like she couldn't let him down. Slayde started floating up until he got to a level that was the same height as the head of the robot.

"You think that you alone can take care of a robot built to be able to take on several of you foolish creatures in Super Form?! I'll enjoy destroying your arrogance." Robotnik stated.

"And I yours Doctor." Slayde retorted calmly. The robot swung a mighty punch at Slayde which whipped up a fair bit of dust. The dust settled showing a Slayde holding back the fist, but this wasn't Slayde as he normally was. Where his quills were black they were flashing between every colour of rainbow in a loop and where his quills were normally Blue they were Purple from the tainting of the Chaos Crystals. There was a simple, lazy expression on his face. "You may be able to beat two lone Super Forms, but can you beat something that's many times stronger I wonder?" He punched the metal fist, actually forcing it to move back.

"How can you have such power?" Robotnik screamed as he forced the entire weight of the robot behind an attack. The Doctor smashed the robot's fist headlong into the stationary Slayde, causing the robotic fist to shatter.

"Didn't you realise just how much power this base needed to run?" Slayde asked tauntingly. The purple fur on Slayde's stripes flickered blue for a second, as his hyper form started to just flash just from yellow to green to blue and back again. "Damn." Slayde commented, then, suddenly a lightning bolt struck down behind him with a crash of thunder causing him to turn round and look at a warping effect that was swirling down where he left the group, everyone was holding onto it with two hands except for Shadow who was looking at him with his left hand outstretched. Slayde didn't need a seconds thought as he bolted towards the fading group his left hand outstretched towards Shadow and they grabbed each other's hands as they were pulled into a whirling vortex of time. Slayde slipped slightly. Quickly looking at his hand he remembered that he had decided to put gloves on this morning and was instantly regretting it as the friction between Shadow's and his gloves were minimal at best. He slipped a little further, Slayde fingers only just in Shadow's gripping hand. They looked at each other fearfully as they knew what was about to happen. Slayde's glove slipped off his hand along with the bracelet on his wrist as the two looked at each other in horror. "Try and find me!" Slayde shouted as he was consumed in the dark, never-ending pits of time. Then all went black for the whole group.

* * *

I hope you all enjoyed Rage's big reveal! I hope that some of you had managed to guess ^.^

One chapter to go and this is finally finished! Can't believe how long it's taken me... I'll get to work on the sequel as soon as I've finished, but I won't be posting it until I've finished some of my other projects!

Also sorry for the late post, I was at my GF's this weekend so I was a tad busy, haha! I'll hopefully get the final chapter out by the end of the week! Don't forget more reviews means a sooner post ^.^


	18. Epilogue: As if it Never Happened

..._As If It Never Happened..._

Sonic woke with a start. He found he was on his living room couch, the TV was blaring at him and he felt really disorientated. _Was all that just a dream? No. It couldn't have been._ He thought as he sat up, an invite to the ice cube slid off him and he used his reflexes to catch it before it hit the ground. _What's going on?_ He looked at the invite then looked at his watch, which displayed 8:06. "Shit!" He zoomed into his room and came back out again faster than you could say 'now' He was wearing a fairly 'formal yet cool' looking white shirt with light blue buttons all the way down the middle. The shirt also had very thin lines of the same blue running from top to bottom each one an inch apart. For trousers Sonic was wearing light blue 'smart' jeans that almost matched the colour of the buttons and were not faded. He was wearing completely white versions of his normal trainers.

He stood there blinking at himself for a full minute. The fact that he was wearing the exact thing of what he could remember was odd. I could only mean one of two things: It happened or it was a lousy premonition... He needed to stop watching those Final Destination films.

He rushed out of the house and made his way to the place where the club was located as fast as he could, he found himself there almost immediately. He made his way to the entrance and a Blue Echidna stepped in his way. Sonic frowned before poking him in the head, causing him to fall over backwards. Sonic gasped at his own actions before helping the rather irritated Echidna up. "If you're invited just get your ass inside." The Echidna grumbled as Sonic walked past. He entered the bar to hear the loud thumping music.

A pink hedgehog with breast length quills wearing and black tank top and deep blue jeans approached him as he entered and he waved. "Hey Amy! How're you doing?" Sonic bellowed over the music. Amy just gestured to a booth that made Sonic's stomach flip. Too many things were the same for it not to have been real. Sonic followed Amy into the booth and sat down. He looked at Tails and studied what he was wearing. A light yellow shirt that went well with his fur and still looked manly. With black trousers on his legs, his feet were not visible. Again, too precise.

"Hello Sonic." A loud but seductive tone came across Sonic turned slowly to see Rouge in beautiful black dress and mid length heals that were black with a heart on top. Sonic gulped and cleared his throat before talking.

"So who have you invited and where are they all?" Sonic asked, trying to be casual but a hint of worry was obvious in his voice.

"Well Knuxiie is at the bar drinking his merry heart away already. Big is in a booth by himself for some reason playing with his frog, Amy and Tails are in here with us as you can obviously see. Sally, Bunnie and Julie-Su are in another booth together. Though they do not want to be disturbed. Finally we have the Chaotix team, or most of them anyway, Vector, Espio, Charmy and Mighty in the final booth. We still have Cream and Shadow to get here!" Rouge exclaimed smiling completely happy with herself. "It's odd Cream isn't here. She's normally the type who's on time for things." Sonic's eyes popped out at this and his breathing became more erratic.

"Know when Shadow's coming? I need to speak to him immediately." Sonic asked in a fast voice. If anyone else would remember it'd be Shadow.

"No. Sonic, are you okay? You seem on edge." Rouge added with empathy. Sonic just blinked a couple of times before nodding meekly. "Okay, in a bit." Rouge announced as she left, the seductive tone dropped and one of concern replacing it. Sonic slid down in his chair just before a waiter came in.

"Hello welcome to the Ice Cube. Would anyone like to order drinks?" The waiter spoke in a friendly tone. Smiling at all the customers. Amy immediately reacted.

"I'll have a large red wine and another relentless for my two tailed fox friend here please!" Sounding very cheery like Amy always had done. The waiter looked at Sonic, whom shook his head and the waiter took his leave. "Sooo... Sonic. How have you been? It's been about 3 years since I saw you last! God you look different! Took up to wearing clothes I see." She winked playfully causing Sonic's mouth to hang open.

"Do you not remember any of it at all?" Sonic asked, Amy just looked at him and blinked with a clear 'WTF' look on her face. Sonic heard the front door open despite the music and rushed out of the booth to be greeted by a rather irritated looking black and red hedgehog. "Shadow! Thank god it's you!" Sonic exclaimed as Shadow frowned at him with a similar look. "Don't tell me, you too?..." Sonic trailed off as he backed into the wall.

"Hedgehog. I feel like something massive just happened and I want to know what." Shadow growled as Amy made her way out of the booth to them. She beamed at Shadow whom smiled back before his face turned confused and then turned irritated. He was just about to speak when he clutched his head and collapsed to his knees, seconds later Amy was also on her knees. Sonic didn't know what to do as he looked between the two who seemed to be in a world of pain, Sonic looked over to Amy to see her quills visibly and rapidly growing, stopping at her hips and both of their bodies were becoming slightly leaner, a more notable change in Amy. Amy's eyes snapped open a split second before Shadow's. "Wh-what?" Shadow exclaimed looking round himself wildly.

"What the hell... Was that machine supposed to do that?" Amy asked as she looked round wildly with Shadow.

"So we're here. It's as if it never happened!" Shadow's voice once again chipped in. "We should find the others." He commented before making his way to the exit. Rouge appeared in front of him.

"Where do you think you're going exactly?" She demanded with annoyance filling up her eyes.

"I may be back later Rouge. This is very important." He announced as he pushed her aside gently, leaving her gawping at him. Amy was hot on his heels and Sonic was following not too much further behind. Sonic muttered a sorry to her before they went outside into the fresh air. "Do you know which way they might be Sonic?" Shadow asked. Sonic nodded before shooting off, leaving a sonic boom behind, Shadow and Amy already in pursuit.

As they approached an area inside the country they slowed down dramatically and looked nearby them before stopping. "Something feels weird." Shadow announced. The second the words had left his lips a bright flash appeared with an unconscious Rage hovering in front of them, he was still in his normal form but was rapidly transforming as the seven Chaos Emeralds were circling him. The clothing on his right arm ripped, and another Chaos Emerald appeared earning a mass of gasps from the three on lookers as eight Chaos Emeralds began to circle round him, his super form fully showing just before he started to flash in a sequence of colours. "Isn't that?..." Shadow started.

"That's a hyper form! Was the difference between the seven Chaos and seven Super really only one Chaos?" Sonic exclaimed. Shadow shook his head.

"A superform can be obtained with just six. The seventh is just good for stability." Shadow informed as another Emerald appeared out nowhere and joined the rest, making nine. "We've got to stop this!" Sonic shouted as he dashed forwards, but the power of the Emeralds threw him back ten feet onto his back. Another Emerald suddenly appeared as most of his jeans disintegrated and begun circling with the others. Making ten. His fur suddenly stopped on a pale yellow as a halo of yellow Chaos energy appeared above his head and pure white feathered wings sprouted out of his back. The three could only gasp in awe at the sight of the new Chaos form as yet another emerald just came from no where and joined the others while his entire clothing had vaporised. "Shadow!" Sonic shouted from the other side of Rage as he tried to find a way in. "We need to do something!" Suddenly a loud whooshing was heard as another Emerald from a few miles away, the one that Shadow would have collected the next day, appeared out of no where and joined in with the 11 already there, suddenly screaming was heard, Rage had regained consciousness.

"What's this power? It can't be possible! It burns so much, the power is just too much for my body to handle! Make it stop!" Rage screamed from amongst the Gems of power. Shadow looked over to Sonic whom had just pulled out a Chaos Emerald out his fur in order to try and help, but the Emerald immediately pulled out Sonic's hand and joined the rest. The effect was instant, the halo shattered and showered Rage in a radiance of light as his pelt turned back to pale blue with the wings remaining the same pure white. Suddenly screaming of unimaginable pain started to sound from inside the vortex of Emeralds. Shadow looked round at Amy wildly.

"Do you know where the last of this time lines Emerald is? He may die if I don't try this, but in turn it may kill him!" Shadow shouted to both Amy and Sonic at the same time. Amy immediately pulled the purple Emerald out of the quills near her neck and handed it to Shadow.

"I believe in you." Amy reassured as she laid her hand over Shadow's. Shadow's eyes flared with renewed determination as he dashed for Rage, his fur became lighter and lighter as Shadow approached with the Emerald, just as he came into contact with the force that Sonic was thrown back by, he activated his body's own super form as he dashed head on into the Emeralds area and begun to feel a push. Shadow pushed his way forward until he was close to Rage. His pelt started flashing colours from the backlash of Chaos radiation as he shouted his trademark words.

"_Chaos_ _Control!_"

One of each colour of the Emeralds disappeared in a flash of green light, taking Shadow's and Rage's Chaos forms with them before the six Emeralds not being held rocketed off in different directions round the globe. Shadow collapsed to the floor face first as Rage fell to the ground right next to him, Shadow heard a slight muttering just before he and Rage passed out. "Thank you."

* * *

Deep in the cold steel lab of Dr. Robotnik things were going exactly to plan. He was still semi immortal, and still remembered everything all thanks to the glowing Black Emerald that he held in his hand. A wicked laugh was heard as he twiddled some dials and changed a few things while sitting on his old throne. He held it up and admired his work before smirking. He had successfully made a small part for his machine that would allow him to do the same experiments with clones as he had done before. He gave it a satisfied look as there was a loud crash causing alarms to suddenly go off. Robotnik ran out into the corridor to be greeted by a familiar black hedgehog. "Hello Sonic... How the mighty have fallen." Robotnik commented as he was grabbed round the collar.

"I would far rather kill you for everything that you did, that you were going to do. But that wouldn't allow you to _suffer_ enough. I hope you're looking forward to hell on earth. Without your machines you're nothing." Sonic sneered and he spat in Robotnik's face. "I don't know how you remembered what happened. But I bet it has something to do with that in your hand." Sonic swiped the Black Emerald from Robotnik's hand and looked into his eyes with malicious intent. "Your days are through Robotnik." Sonic taunted as he teleported them both outside using Chaos control, Sonic floated above the base and threw the Black Emerald up into the air. "_Chaos Grenade._" Muttered Sonic as he shot a bolt of energy at Robotnik's base. Robotnik screamed in protest causing Sonic to smirk from finally getting a reaction out of the mad scientist as the base exploded, causing many areas of it to collapse. The Emerald came down and he caught it before he used Chaos control once again to remove himself from the area, leaving the rubble behind.

A few seconds after he had left a small robot moved, he was sparking from the damage he had received yet it looked round the debris to find something. After a while it picked something up and pushed what was left of the throne out of the way, making its way down it dropped a great distance while the throne resealed itself, it made its way down a hall and into a large, seemingly never ending room. The small robot crawled to a machine and slotted a piece in, the same thing that Robotnik was working on mere moments ago, and it pressed a button on a console, causing the sound of a cave in they way it came from. A weak mechanical voice was heard as the robot powered down in the dark hallway.

"The Doctors legacy shall live on."

* * *

I hope that you enjoyed Book one: Doomsday of the books of truth as much as I have done writing it. My writing skills have improved over the time that it's took me to write this that the earlier chapters have been redone more times than I can remember! This epilogue was actually wrote before most of the story. About the 7th chapter in fact!

Well I left some none obvious (And some obvious, the ending soooo isn't one...) hints towards a couple sequels throughout the entire book that I shall start on ASAP! So everyone who enjoyed this be sure to look out for 'Book 3: Origins'! Also look out for 'Book 1.5: Slash' which is a side story that will detail just what happened to Slayde during his blackout to the other universe as I'm sure some people would love to know what happened to him. And if you haven't already, go read some of my other stories, I'll be working on completing some of them before I start releasing Origins! (Like Darkside. Which I can now reveal has been a story within the Books of Truth, occurring after Doomsday itself! (No but seriously. I've even dropped hints in Darkside.))

Slayde: And where, may I ask, am I in this Chapter?

Me: ...

Shadow: Do you ever shut up? This whole journey you've just gone on and on and on.

Amy: Shadow are you being mean to Slayde again?

Shadow: No I'm not Amy, honestly.

Amy: You know I know when you're lying Shadow.

Shadow: How?

Amy: because you call me by my first name!

Me: Say bye for now guys!

Shadow: Are you telling me what to do? *Growls*

Amy: _Shadow!_

Shadow, Slayde, Sonic, Amy and Rage: Bye for now guys!


End file.
